The Snake and the Lion
by Made-From-Uru
Summary: Hogwarts is a magical place. And it is. Sometimes. In the morning I'll chat with my best friend and fellow Slytherin, Al, and in the afternoon I'll get tormented by three pompous pureblooded morons. As if that wasn't bad enough I think I'm falling for the guy who's treated me like I've been invisible for the last six years. Great. This should be a fun year. Kind of. T for language.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I can safely say that I am not JK ROWLING, therefore I do not own the Harry Potter series. Only my characters are mine.**

**I am aware that I have tried to write Harry Potter stories in the past, but I wasn't really feeling it with that last story. I wrote the first couple of chapters of **_**The Snake and the Lion **_**(I am aware of the cheesy name) before I posted anything to see if I liked it enough to continue, and I do, so hopefully this one will be more successful. **

**Sorry this chapter was a bit boring and long, but I felt like I needed to get things settled down before I began with the plot. I hope to dive in next chapter with the beginning of the plot so you guys can get a taste of what the story in gonna be about.**

**May I also add that in this chapter **_**when writing is in italics **_**it means that they are speaking german. **

**Thanks :) M-F-U xx**

Red Trains and Impossible Stations.

'And you have everything you need?' My mother had asked me this question a large number of times, and instead of replying with the usual _yes _I smiled at her and kissed her cheek.

'I'll be fine, it's not like I haven't done this before.' I said, reminding her I was entering my sixth year at Hogwarts and that I was completely capable of looking after myself. 'I'll write as soon as I can, I promise mum.'

Turning to my little sister, who was due to start her muggle secondary school in a week, I found her scowling at the floor. It was no secret that Carmen was disappointed she did not share my gift of magic, but once I told her that I was secretly jealous that she would be getting to attend our local high school, which I had been looking forward to attending at a young age, she seemed to cheer up a bit. Not that I wasn't glad that I was a witch, but whenever I returned home for the holidays I would see my old friends out and about who had all grown apart from me after they all went to the same school and I travelled up to Scotland every year.

'Carmen, you are going to have such a great time in school, but remember, if you ever need any advice or anything like that, just write to me, okay?' After she nodded silently, her dark hair bouncing on her shoulders (another thing I was jealous of: Carmen's hair was a beautiful dark brown from my mothers side while I had taken after my fathers German family, all with blonde, curly hair, which had left me feeling like a _'dumb blonde'_) I brought her in for a big hug and kissed the top of her head. 'See you at Christmas, kiddo.'

Giving one last wave to my mother and Carmen, I followed my dad into the station. My mother did not like the hustle and bustle and general magic of platform 9¾ and was concerned that my sister would get lost, and so my father tended to be the only one to accompany me to the train.

_'Now, do I have to give the usual speech about boys again?' _My father spoke in German as we walked towards the platforms. When I simply raised my eyebrows, he quickly added _'Or girls. Your mother and I love either way and –'_

I cut him off. _'Papa, I'm pretty sure I'm straight.' _I had grown up speaking german around my father and his family, and the language came easily to me.

_ 'Well you say that now, but my uncle Rudi said the same thing and then one day he left my aunt and went off with a male accountant!'_

I laughed at his remark, but decided to leave the matter at that. We walked in comfortable silence as he pushed my trolley (to his insistence), until we reached the pillar that led to the platform. He nodded for me to go first and so I ran towards the brick pillar, closing my eyes just as I went through it.

He came through soon after, but I was already looking around the busy platform. A smile settled on my lips as I was suddenly embraced with the Hogwarts atmosphere I lived in for the majority of the year. While I sometimes complained about Hogwarts, I couldn't imagine a life without it. The castle had quickly become my second home, and while at home I was seldom without the use of magic, which meant whenever I stepped back onto the platform I was pleasantly plunged back into the secret world of magic.

Eventually I saw the Potter family, the three children saying goodbye to their parents. I had never actually met Mr and Mrs Potter; however, their names were regularly mentioned in the halls of Hogwarts. As I learnt in my first year the Potter and Weasley families were very famous in the wizarding world.

My best friend, Al, was the middle child in the Potter household. I hadn't seen him all summer, although multiple letters had been passed between us via Owls. He looked up, and upon seeing me flashed me a huge smile. He waved at me, dark hair sprouting in every direction, and I waved back.

James Potter, the eldest Potter boy, looked up too. Often, I overheard other girls at Hogwarts swoon and squeal about his smile, however I had never seen it directed at me. Not that I _cared, _as such, but it would be nice to not feel like I was an evil monster whenever he looked at me. It seemed that an automatic scowl formed onto his face whenever he looked at me, and at this moment on the platform it was no exception. James turned back to his family, and Al mouthed _I'll meet you on the train. _I nodded in return and turned to my father.

_'Well, I should probably find a seat on the train' _I said in german, and my dad wrapped his arms around me and rested his chin on the top of my head.

_'Write me as soon as you get there. I love you and I'll see you at Christmas.' _He kissed my temple and let go of me.

'Bye dad.' I said, this time in english. I waved at him one last time and climbed aboard the train. We still had a good fifteen minutes until the train would leave and the train was still very empty. It was easy to find an empty compartment and I sat down when I had found one at the end of the train. I hauled my trunk onto the overhead paneling.

I looked out the window to see that my father had left. Up until last year he would stay and wave the train off, but seeming as we always got here early (my mother was convinced I would miss the train) I had insisted that he leave instead of waiting awkwardly on the platform for ages. I didn't mind.

I picked out a book from my messenger bag, a black tatty old bit of fabric with_ 'Team Castiel' _written across it in red letters and a white pentagram surrounded by wings. Supernatural – the fandom my bag belonged to – was an obsession of mine I had learnt about a good couple of years ago. I loved the TV show so much, but the last season's finale, season 10, was totally devastating and had left me heart broken.

The book I had picked for the journey was the third installment of Tolkien's _The Lord of The Rings. _Return of the King was my favourite book from the series, which is surprising, as usually I prefer the second books in trilogies. Catching Fire. Clockwork Prince. The Scorch Trials. Still, I was rereading the book for what seemed like the hundredth time so intently that I barely noticed when the platform became increasingly empty. When I did finally notice I took it as my queue to stop reading and wait for my friends to show up.

First to arrive was Sophie Wood, a through and through Gryffindor. Soph was a natural beauty. Her brunette waves and high cheekbones were a subject of envy for many girls at school, but she was one of the sincerest people I had ever met and was more focused on her grades than looks and boys. Despite her dad being a huge Quidditch enthusiast – playing professionally in his younger years – had never taken an interest in playing the sport. I think it's because of her secret phobia for heights.

Soph and I had fallen into easy conversation when the next of our 'merry gang' showed up. Alec Stratmore entered the compartment with arms held high in a flamboyant manner as if to say _I am here now! Now grovel at my feet! _His tanned olive skin shone in the sun and his thick hair bounced around on his head.

'Miss me ladies?' He grinned and sat down next to Sophie, to which she replied with 'You wish, dork.' And went in for a hug. Next he turned to me and said 'I'd get up and hug you too but seeming as you were 'too busy' to meet up with me I don't think I will.' He teased. He had, indeed, asked me if I would like to come and visit him for a weekend in the summer, to which I had politely declined. After all, I was in Germany visiting my grandmother, and besides, I had to take advantage of the Internet as much as I could before I returned to Hogwarts and its no-Wi-Fi-rules.

I rolled my eyes and asked him how his summer was anyway. A few minutes passed before the last of our company joined us. You could tell when the Potter and Weasley clan got on the train. Suddenly a burst of chatter and laughter came spilling down the carriages as they all passed our compartment. Most of them walked right past us, but two stepped in after seeing us. The chatter of the large family died down soon after as they all went their separate ways.

The two students who stepped in were normally the last two to arrive in our group. The first was a girl with dark, red hair that cascaded down her back in think waves. Rose Weasley was one of the smartest people I knew and rightly deserved to be in Ravenclaw despite her father's disappointment she hadn't been sorted into Gryffindor. Freckles covered her bright face and her kind brown eyes always seemed to bore into my soul, making it hard to hide secrets from her. Rose came and sat next to me giving me a quick squeeze for a hug,

The second was Al who was in Slytherin with me – much to his brother's disappointment. He sat next to Alec, giving him one of those weird guy hugs. He greeted Soph and I with warm smiles. We fell back into laughter quickly, and very soon the train started to move and my four friends jumped up to the window and waved goodbye to their folks.

A game of exploding snap began and slowly became a championship, to which Alec won, although Soph was convinced it was through methods that weren't exactly within the rules. Which, from Alec's mock-offended face, was probably true.

'Well, we should probably get going to the prefect meeting.' Rose said, looking expectantly at Al and I.

'Oh yeah, I've been _totally _looking forwards to prefect duties all summer.' I said dryly. Prefect duties were, to be honest, a bit of a bore if you didn't have someone you liked on duty with you. And seeming as last year the head girl thought it would a good idea to stick to duties with other people in your house, 90% of the time I was stuck with a pompous pureblooded prat.

'Oh yeah, I forgot we were mates with the _goodie goodie _kids.' Alec said as he began a second game of snap with Sophie. Alec was 'perfectly relieved when a badge never arrived for him'.

Other prefects were also walking to the front of the train, one of which was, unfortunately James. He saw Al and Rose and, ignoring me, swopped them bother under his arms and said 'oh look, it's the _non-gryffindor _members of the family!' After the original shock of Al being sorted into Slytherin and Rose into Ravenclaw James had started to playfully tease them constantly. It hadn't been the first time a member of the family had been sorted into a different house, but James seemed to of _expected _Al to be a Gryffindor. Al turned back to me and smiled apologetically and I smiled back reassuringly. I didn't mind walking on my own, I just felt a bit awkward walking right behind James.

The meeting was over fairly quickly. Molly Weasley, who I had never really spoken to that much before, introduced herself as head girl, and Frank Longbottom introduced himself as head boy. Then Molly proceeded to get us to all introduce us to the room. I hated speaking in front of large groups, but seeming as all I had to say was 'Hi, I'm Bridgette' I managed to say it without my voice trembling too much.

After everyone had introduced himself or herself, Molly continued. 'Now, due to some complaints about last years patrol groups' she said throwing a look at Al who smiled back at her innocently, 'we shall have patrols inside _and _outside of our houses.' I glanced at the Slytherin prefects and let out a quiet sigh of relief.

Molly went onto explain basic patrol information and general prefect stuff before handing out our timetables for the year. Mine wasn't too bad; I had patrols on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Quite a few of my patrols were with Al, but some were with fifth years I had never spoken to before. I had a couple with my Slytherin housemates, much to my dismay, but patrols with Rose and Al made up for it. The worst though was when I found out I had several patrols with James Potter, which I had avoided last year. I disliked James purely because he judged me because of my house without actually ever talking to me, and I had no patience for people like that. I suppose he would just ignore me for the patrols anyway, so I decided not to worry too much.

We dispersed from the compartment and got changed into our robes. Sixth years were on train duty, so Al and I made our way up and down the train together. Rose had paired of with Scorpius, who eventually joined us when we made our way up to the castle when the train stopped at Hogsmeade station and we climbed upon the carriages.

...

In the Great Hall, the headmistresses speech was delivered and the sorting hat sung. New Slytherins came and sat down on our table near Al and me. We sat near the back to the doors, not wanting to interact with too many other Slytherins. Sitting with us were two fourth years who were decent people. Jade Starke was a pureblood from a rich family, but extremely humble and kind. Next to her was Francis Quenton, who, like his friend was a pureblood, but unlike his friend wasn't afraid to speak his mind to other houses. Still, he was better than a lot of other people in our house.

A third year also sat with us. Her name was Stephanie and was the one of the nicest people I had ever met. On her way back from dinner to the common room everyday she would stop by the kitchens and thank the house elves for the excellent food.

Joining us this year were quite a few first years as well. One of them, a boy with dark hair and pale skin, looked quite alone and so I tried to talk to him. He seemed nice enough at first, but when I told him my name and he didn't recognize the family as a pureblood family I explained that I was a muggleborn he scoffed and said that I should feel lucky talking to him as he didn't usually talk to mudbloods.

I stopped talking to him after that and began plotting ways on how to hex him. I may try and be a nice person, but sometimes people like that need to be taught a lesson. I was still in Slytherin after all.

After that we got our timetables. Having gotten an O in everything but Herbology and History of Magic (which I was still convinced was unfair as I had lived my first 11 years without knowing magic had even _existed_) in which I got E's in I was cleared to carry on with all my chosen subjects. Those were: Charms, Defense against the Dark Arts (my personal favourite subject), History of Magic (which I had considered dropping though decided I probably needed it as a muggleborn), Potions, Transfiguration, Study of Ancient Runes and Arithmancy.

When Al and I decided it was time to retire, we got up and said goodbye to our small group of people and waved at our friends in different houses. Walking to the dungeon Al wrapped an arm around me in a hug. I realised this was the first time we had hugged since I had seen him last year.

'Good to have you back, Bree.' Al said, and I squirmed out of his reach.

'You know I will no longer be your friend if you keep calling me a type of cheese.' I joked.

'Yes you will, I'm famous, remember?'

We chatted all the way back to the common room before we parted ways at the stairs. The common room was already full and neither of us felt like staying down there.

I carried on reading for a while before I heard the dorm door swing open and a group of four giggling girls walked through the stone passageway.

'Hey Bree!' Allison Nobilis was from an extremely rich pureblood family but both her and her family – especially after the war – had no prejudices concerning blood status. While I was friends with Allison I preferred the company of Al, Sophie, Alec, Rose and Scorpius, however every year she would bring me back a souvenir from whatever exotic country her family and she had visited. This year she dropped a black box on my bed, inside was a sliver necklace with a tiny horse shoe charm.

With her was Delilah Smith, Erica Lavern and Ellen Harper. Delilah and Ellen were both halfbloods but Erica was, like Allison, a pureblood with - luckily - no objections to me being here. They were all lovely girls, but I just preferred being with my other friends.

After we all caught up and chatted for a good long time we one by one closed our curtains and went to sleep. I was the third to say goodnight, leaving Allison and Delilah laughing between themselves.

Falling asleep was easy and I slept soundlessly that night.

**If you couldn't already tell, I'm trying to eradicate the Slytherin blood purity thing. While I think that there would still naturally be some prejudice (as we saw with that first year and we will see in the next chapter) I think that a lot of people would of gotten over it. So thats what I'm trying to do here.**

**Hope you enjoyed it! **


	2. Chapter 2

Broomsticks and Bathroom Breaks

**Disclaimer: I am not the fabulous JK ROWLING; therefore the Harry Potter books do not belong to me. Only my characters and plot are born of my own imagination. **

My feet had always let me down. Balance wasn't my best attribute by a long shot, and it seemed that my legs always found it fun to either trip over themselves or over nothing. My clumsiness had never missed a beat to embarrass me or to ruin my day, and has been the cause of many broken vases in my house.

Still, it seemed that whenever my feet were not involved, I was elegant and agile, which meant that, to my upmost surprise, I was fairly good on a broom.

Being a muggle born, the first time that I ever touched a broomstick (of the magic kind that is, my household wholeheartedly believed in _'community chores'_) was in first year. At first I had been absolutely terrified, but after a while I began to love flying. Al offered to teach me further how to play Quidditch, which soon became a frequent activity for us during our free time.

Despite usually being totally hopeless with a ball, the position of chaser soon became my favourite, while Al favored the position of seeker. Occasionally Al's cousins and siblings would join in and play too (even James sometimes played, of course without acknowledging me at all though), but most of the time it was just Al and myself playing one on one.

In fourth year, Al tried out for the Slytherin Quidditch team (most of his family were on the teams across the different houses) and when Al became the official seeker it meant that family competition had now spread to every house. James and Al were often seen trash talking each other before matches, although no harm was ever actually intended.

Al had begged me to try out too, but I was terrified of flying in front of the whole school, convinced that my clumsiness would catch up with me and that I would let down the team. Also, I wasn't entirely sure I was even good enough, despite Als insistence that I was actually a pretty good flyer.

In fifth year, however, when I went to watch Al's second tryout for the team (even though we all – including the captain – knew that he would make it onto the team again) I somehow managed to tryout for the team, much to my confusion.

"Hey, Haus! You trying out?" Amelia Garter, Slytherin captain, had shouted out at me after I gave Al a good luck thumbs up and sat down on one of the benches.

"Erm, no. I'm really not very good at Quidditch." I replied, weary of the number of eyes that had turned on me.

"Really? Cause I've seen you playing some friendlies down by the lake before, and you looked pretty good to me." Emily was a seventh year with dark hair and olive skin, and while she was known for her occasional unprovoked hex on unsuspecting second years (she said hexing first years was just _too _mean, so at least she had some morals) she was brilliant at Quidditch and was deservedly captain.

Before I had had the chance to make up an excuse, Al jumped in. "Yeah, she's great at Quidditch!" I gave Al the dirtiest look I could muster. He shrugged and made a face that looked like he was trying to say "_What? You are!"_

"Then try out, Haus!" Amelia shrugged.

"No, Al's joking, I'm really not that great." I was desperately trying to convince Amelia that I couldn't be on the team and regretting coming down to cheer on Al, but Amelia seemed adamant to get me to try out.

"Look, I've seen you by the black lake before, and with enough practice we could really use you on the team. We need two more chasers anyway, and if you're not as good as I thought you were then it doesn't matter. It's just try outs."

"No, really, I can't. Besides, I haven't got my broom with me." My broom was a fairly new model of the Nimbus. It was fast and agile, but nothing compared to Als broom, which was fit for a seeker.

"You can borrow mine when I'm not using it." Al offered, and I glared at him once again.

"Go get changed into some spare kit, and then come back and join in." Amelia said, and I could tell, that for whatever reason, she was not going to let this drop.

Reluctantly, I decided that I might as well, sure that I wouldn't get on the team anyway. Much to my dismay, however, when I came back and it was my turn to try for chaser, I did the best out of the three others trying to get the position. One was a first year, so he was definitely not getting the position, but the other two were fourth year boys who were, actually, very good.

At first I was a bit shaky and nervous (I hadn't been on a broom all summer), but soon I was enjoying myself as much as I normally did. Quidditch came easily to me, and without even realizing it I had scored 9 out of 10 goals while Damian Kerowsky scored 6 out of 10, and Joseph Philips scored 8 out of 10.

This unfortunately led me to be part of the team. I didn't really mind though. Secretly I was glad Al had partially forced me to try out (though I would never tell him that) and I was really quite chuffed that I had beaten the other three possible chasers.

Playing in matches wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, and I actually really enjoyed it. I think it helped me with my confidence a bit too, and, surprisingly, I managed to ignore the pressure and scored on average five goals per match. Go me!

Now as I headed down to the stadium with Al for tryouts, my new broom (which I had begged and begged my parents to let me buy) in my hand, I wasn't so sure that I was going to make the team this year. The new captain, a seventh year sour looking boy, was known for believing that Slytherin house was not a place for muggleborns. Still, I appreciated that he didn't call me mudblood like other people who shared his view, so I thought I might as well try out anyway.

Michael Knott, our new captain (after having Amelia as captain for three years most of the team was curious whether or not many changes were to be made) was ready and waiting down at the pitch already. Most people had already arrived, but we all waited a couple more minutes while a couple of other people came down from the castle.

"All right, listen up. While our current team is already very good and we only need to fill the position of beater and keeper, every position will be tried out for to make sure that any new faces have an opportunity to show us if they have what it takes to be on the team." While Michael was totally right in doing this, I was convinced that he would replace me on the team.

When tryouts finished I had played my best and, once again, scored 9 out of 10 goals. Jo and Scott – the other two chasers on the team last year - both scored 8 goals each and the two newbies both got 7, and Al assured me that I would get on the team. Al was easily on the team, shooting around the stadium so fast that at some points he was just a blur. His eyesight was sharp as always, and I even thought he had gotten better over the summer.

When tryouts were over I readied myself for the cuts. To be honest, if I got kicked of the team just for being a muggleborn in Slytherin I think I would of hexed Michael when he wasn't looking.

"Everyone flew really well today guys, but as you know we can only have so many on the team." Michael said as everyone gathered around. "So, for this year the team will consist of the following names. For keeper we have Florence Holland," Holland was a third year who I had never spoken to before, but watching her keeping today showed everyone watching that she deserved to get on the team. "Beating with myself will be Bethany Spencer." Spencer was a seventh year surly girl with an aggressive attitude and high opinions of herself. Unfortunately, she played exceptionally well and I had to admit that I was relieved that she would be on Slytherin's team and not its opponent.

"Seeker will be Albus Potter" he continued, nodding at Al who nodded back, "and Chasers will be Jo, Scott and Bridgette." I smiled in relief and Al elbowed me playfully to congratulate me. "Congratulations to the guys who made it, good effort to those who didn't quite make the cut. It was a hard decision to make. I'll let the people who made the team know when practice will be, but for now you may go."

I turned to Al and smiled, while he muttered "I told you so." As we turned to leave, I heard Michael call my name from behind me. I turned to see him waving me over.

I looked over at Al, who shrugged in confusion, and I walked back to Michael trying not to let my cautiousness show in my step.

"I know that I've expressed my dislike for muggleborns like you to be in Slytherin before," he began, and I had absolutely no idea where this was going, "and I know that you may not like me for it. But I wanted to let you know that I will try and be civil towards you during practices and games. You are an exceptional player and it would be a waste to not have you on the team."

"Er, thanks?'" I normally would have been flattered at being told I was an 'exceptional flyer', but seeming as he had basically said _I'm only going to be civil to you because you are a good flyer and I want my team to win _I wasn't really sure what to say. I mean, what do you say after that?

"Well done today, Haus, see you at practice." And then he shooed me away with his hand. I awkwardly stood there for a second, taken back by his deadpan personality, but soon walked back to Al.

"What was that about?" Al asked as we walked back up to the castle.

"I think I just became the team dupe." When Al looked at me in confusion I carried on. "He basically just told me that he's gonna be nice to me and look past my muggleborn status because I fly well."

"Well, you know, it's better than nothing I suppose."

"Yeah. And hey, he said that I was an _exceptional _flyer. I didn't catch him saying that to you, so ha."

"I think you'll fine that's because I am a _perfect _flyer, so…"

I playfully punched his arm. "Shut up, Potter."

...

The Great Hall was, as usual, full of chatter and laughter. Al and I, however, were not sitting at the Slytherin table and instead were sitting on the end of the Ravenclaw table with Alec, Sophie, Rose and Scorpius. Rose and Scorpius were deep in conversation about the importance of taking History of Magic, a class which Scorpius hated with a loathing but Rose thought should be compulsive to all NEWT students.

Sophie and Alec were arguing once again about Alec supposedly setting of a dung bomb in the sixth year Gryffindor girl's dorm, which he was denying but Al and I knew he did. He had told us his scheme the other day.

Al and I were doing some of our own cooking. It started of when I threw a grape in Als face, and when it bounced of his face and into his pumpkin juice we had – for some reason – thought it would be a great idea to make our own drink.

We had taken his pumpkin juice and then added smushed bread, crushed grapes, cut up bits of ham, gravy, grated carrots, crushed tomatoes and broccoli leaves. We called it _lecker _which was german for _tasty, _something that we were both sure our creation was not.

I cast a spell which shook the drink all up, and we both peered down into the glass. It looked like vomit, especially with the soggy bread and carrot pieces.

"Who's gonna drink it then?" I asked, looking up at him.

"There is no way that I am drinking that." He said, scrunching his nose to portray his disgust in the drink.

"Well I sure as hell aint drinking it either!" I replied, equal disgust in my voice.

"Well one of us is gonna have to." His eyes lit up. "What about rock paper scissors? Loser has to drink it." Rock Paper Scissors was Al's favourite way to decide which one of us got to/had to do something. I had taught him the muggle game in third year, and he came back after the holidays telling me that his whole family _loved _it and that it had been the family craze over Christmas.

I didn't really want to risk having to drink it, but the possibility of watching Al gulp it down was to good to pass up the challenge.

"Fine." As well as clumsy I was _very _competitive. My dad brought me up playing various different sports and games and his childish attitude had made it very fun to trash talk him and have him trash talk me back.

"_Rock Paper Scissors!" _We both said, banging our fists against the palm of our hands. I had played scissors. He had played rock.

Shit.

"Best of three?" I asked hopefully, but he smiled mischievously back at me.

"Nope" he said, popping the p at the end, "you loose, you drink."

I moaned as I slowly picked up the drink – if you could even call it a drink – and raised it to my mouth. My nose was wrinkled and I closed my eyes as I tipped back the glass as the contents poured into my mouth.

It was _foul._

I gagged as I tried to swallow, but I could taste everything. The soggy bread made the texture slimy, but the broccoli and carrots meant that there were also lots of lumps in the drink. The crushed grapes and tomatoes made the drink watery and sweet, which totally went against the ham and gravy.

Al was laughing his head off as he watched me clamp my hand over my mouth and leant forward.

"I gant drink dish, it'sh dishgushting!" I tried to say with a mouth full of _lecker _which just led to Al laughing harder as some of the now milky brown substance dribbled down my chin.

"I'm going to shpit dish out." I said, rising to my feet and running out of the hall and leaving a hysterical Al to explain to Soph where I was going. I saw her look down at the drink and then at me running away and begin laughing too.

Thanks Soph.

When I got to the girls bathroom I ran to a stall and spat out the _lecker. _I spat a couple more times into the toilet and knelt there gagging for a bit. Sometimes I really hated my 'honor complex' as my father and I called it. My honor complex was that I couldn't back down from a dare or an agreement. I was too stubborn to back down and believed that if you agreed to do something you should follow through.

I flushed the toilet and wiped my mouth before moving over to the sinks. I turned on the tap and splashed cool water on my face and then scooping some into my mouth, swilling and spitting it out again to get rid of the taste of the _lecker. _

I looked at my pale face in the mirror for a bit, hating myself for drinking the disgusting concoction, when I heard someone clear their throat behind me.

I turned to find three seventh year Slytherin girls staring at me, arms crossed and feet tapping impatiently on the floor. I recognized them as Felicia, Elizabeth and Becky, not knowing their last names but knowing their reputation for being bullies and pompous pureblood gits with similar views to Michael, but who weren't afraid to act on their opinions.

"Hey guys, what's cracka-lacking?" I laughed nervously before internally scolding myself. _Cracka-lacking? Seriously? _I got so weird sometimes.

"I'll tell you what's _cracka-lacking"_ Becky said cracka-lacking with uncertainty. I suppose wizards didn't really use muggle terms like that, but being a fairly smart girl Becky seemed to realise I was asking her _what's up? "_You filthy little _mudblood."_ She continued.

"Whoa, no need for name-calling. I'm as much of a witch as you guys." I said defensively. I really hated it when people used that word.

"Oh no, we're totally fine with the school doing some charity work and letting muggles in." Felicia said, flicking her dark hair over her shoulder. "It's that they put you in our house, bitch."

"Excuse you?" I said, my face probably contorting into something of amused disbelief.

"You heard her. Why should our noble house be brought down with mudbloods like you?"

"Maybe the sorting hat felt bad about Slytherin house getting stuck with you three, so he wanted to make up for it?" I said as innocently as I could. I always tried to be nice to people, but when someone calls me a mudblood and questions my right to be in my house I just got so angry. And besides that was actually a half decent comeback; I mentally high fived myself.

I immediately regretted saying it though when I saw them all laugh lightly and take a step closer to me, blocking off all my exits. Looking around the bathroom I realised it was just us in here. Oops.

"You'll pay for that, worm." Becky said, reaching for her wand. The other two went to go do the same, Elizabeth more hesitantly, and I cursed internally. If this was a muggle fight I'm sure I would be able to get away. My competitive streak meant that I had gotten into one or two fights in the school playground when I was a child and I soon took up martial arts, which I continued through the holidays.

But this wasn't a muggle fight. And I had heard rumors that using unforgivable curses was not beneath them. Before I had even had a chance to reach for my wand – which was tucked into the back of my skirt – Becky muttered _crucio _and I was pushed into the mirror as excruciating pain rocketed through my body.

I had managed to avoid being cursed with this particular spell so far during my time at Hogwarts, and the pain was far greater than I had ever imagined it could be. I felt the mirror shatter at the impact of my head hitting it and I fell down onto the floor.

My whole body felt like it was on fire. My knuckles clenched together and the head felt like it was going to explode. I refused to scream, or I couldn't, I'm not sure which it was, but either way the only sound that came from my mouth was a sharp gasp.

Honestly, the only way I can describe the pain unless you've had the misfortune to fall victim to this particular curse is that my body felt heavy and my organs felt like they were being turned inside out.

The pain stopped suddenly, but I groaned as a painful ache dulled around my body. "Pin her down." One of the girls said, I think it was still Becky.

Pressure was put onto my feet and arms, but I think even if I wanted to move I wouldn't have been able to. My vision was blurry, but I could see the outline of a Becky's blonde hair as she knelt over me.

"I'm going to teach you your place, mudblood." She said, and as my vision came back I saw her pick up a shard of broken mirror, carful not to cut her hand.

She rolled up my jumper sleeve exposing my forearm. I realised a second too late what she was going to do. This time I did scream. I thrashed about as she dug the glass into my skin. I had fallen over and cut myself before (thank you clumsiness) but this pain went on for what felt like ages. My forearm became warm and sticky as blood trickled out of the wounds that Becky was creating.

Finally, she stopped, inspected her work, smiled, and then got up. "Come on girls. Hopefully Bridgette has learned her place." The pressure on my arms and legs disappeared, and I looked up at them from my position on the floor. Felicia and Becky both had ugly sneers on their faces, but Elizabeth looked close to tears. _Not that I felt sorry for her, she just helped torture me._

They then turned and left the bathroom, leaving me gasping on the floor. I turned my head to look at my arm to find the word _mudblood _carved into my flesh. There was a substantial amount of blood, and I could tell that there would be scarring. I didn't want to go to the hospital wing, however, as that would mean I would have to tell the professors what had happened and I really didn't feel like that right now. I could clean it up myself. I wanted to be a healer when I left Hogwarts and, because of my frequent falling over, had some bandages in my trunk.

I slowly got up, the ache in my limbs worsening, and I looked at myself in the remaining mirrors. I was deathly pale and my hair was a total mess. Thankfully though, I hadn't cried or else my eyes would be blotchy red. At least now when I walked to the common room and I saw someone I could just pat down my hair and roll down my sleeve and hope they just think I need a bit more sun.

I reached for my wand, my injured arm pulsing and itching with pain; I muttered _reparo _and the mirror flew back into one piece. After that I quickly left the bathroom. Passing the Great Hall I looked in to find Al laughing with Alec. This was good. It meant that he wouldn't run into me in the common room and that I wouldn't have to explain what happened.

I swiftly walked past and turned the corner, blood sticking to my rolled down sleeve, and made for the dungeon. While some may find it more comfortable in one of the tower common rooms or the Hufflepuff common room by the kitchens, I loved being in the dungeons. While our common room was gloomy and cold and gothic, it made me feel like a proper stereotypical witch, like the ones I grew up reading about.

I was so lost in thought that I didn't realise I was walking right into someone until it was too late. SMACK.

I had walked straight into someone. "Merlin, I'm so sorry! I didn't see you there! I –" I began to aplologise franticly but stopped when I looked up to see who it was. James Potter was looking down on me with an annoyed expression. His dark hair cast a menacing shadow over his face from the dim lighting of the dungeons, and his usual scowl was covering his face.

"Watch where you're going, Haul." He said in an infuriating tone.

"Oh, its just you. What - what are you doing here anyway?" I said, trying to keep my voice from shaking.

"Detention with Slughorn." Professor Slughorn was an incredibly old wizard who taught Potions. He took a liking to the Potter and Weasley children but even James' teachers - who thought he was perfect - still had no choice but to give him detentions when he purposely sabotaged other people's potions to blow up in their faces. "It's not like I would optionally choose to be in your Slytherin dungeons."

His voice, however, trailed off when he looked more closely at my face. "Are you… are you alright?" He asked me. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

I had never heard James use that tone of voice with me before. He was usually ice-cold around me, but it seemed that as soon as he realised something was wrong his voice softened.

"Yeah, I'm just not feeling great, I was just –" but I was cut off when James grabbed my injured arm – I flinched as his hand clamped down on my cuts – and lifted it up. I suppose he must of seen the dark red stains on my jumper because he pulled my sleeve up, revealing the message the other girls had left me.

His brow furrowed as he read the word _mudblood _and involuntary tears started to well up in my eyes. I didn't like to cry, especially in front of people, but the severity of the situation I had just been in seemed to finally dawn on me.

Finally James spoke. "Who did this to you?" He looked into my eyes at the end of the sentence. He had nice eyes. They were a greeny colour and were softer than I thought they would be. I looked at the floor, afraid that he would see the tears I was desperately trying not to let fall.

And then I laughed. I actually laughed. I don't know why, I didn't plan on it, but a horrible twisted laugh bounced of my lips. "Like you care, Potter."

He seemed taken back by this and even looked slightly hurt. I didn't care, I continued. 'I'm just some Slytherin, aren't I? Some lying death eater scum who probably deserved it.'

"Look, you may be a Slytherin but you're still Al's mate."

"Right, so if I didn't know you're brother I would deserve it?" I said maliciously, and he seemed to regret saying it. "Look, I don't need your help or your opinions. I can fight my own battles and I'm not so weak and fragile that I will take help from someone who has treated me like hippogriff shit for six years."

"I –" He began, but I kept talking. "Look, I appreciate your concern for your little brothers friend. But I can deal with this on my own. I've dealt with it for six years and I can deal with it for another two, so back of." With that I ripped my arm from his grasp and stormed past him, and I didn't look back to see if he had walked off.

Once I was in the common room, which was thankfully empty, I ran up to my dorm. While I cleaned up the cuts and took some painkillers (an item which wasn't _really _allowed but I was glad I had packed some anyway) I started to regret the things I had said.

James was just trying to be nice and I had shot him down. He had actually shown some kindness towards me and I hadn't even thanked him (well, technically I had but it probably didn't sound very sincere). If he didn't think I was a rude, cold hearted Slytherin then he probably did now.

I pushed the thoughts aside and went to sleep, even though it as only around seven. I was exhausted and it didn't take long for me to fall into a deep sleep filled with nightmares.

**So I realise that the whole **_**mudblood **_**arm thing is just a **_**liiiitle **_**similar to what happened with Hermione at Malfoy Manor, but my mind was set on the plot development so there you have it.**

**Apologies for any inconsistent spelling. I am English and so spell words like **_**realise **_**and **_**apologise **_**with an s instead of a z, but my computer is American and so likes to autocorrect it sometimes.**

**Thank you to the guest reviewer who pointed out that I was using ' to highlight my dialogue instead of ". It is a habit of mine and I will try and sort it out in the rest of my chapters! I wouldn't of noticed unless you'd pointed it out so thank you!**

**I didn't plan on this chapter being so long and I only meant for two key things to happen – the tryouts and the whole torture thing – but one thing led to another and here we are with a 4500-word chapter! **

**Also, I felt like I really needed to cement the friendship between Bridgette and Albus, and so I hope that the **_**lecker **_**thing kind of gave you an idea of what sort of friends/people they are.**

**This chapter had a small amount of swear words in which I usually try and avoid using in my writing but I couldn't think of anything else to use instead.**

**I hope this chapter gave you guys an idea of what sort of direction this fic is going in. Hope you liked it! M-F-U xx**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer – unfortunately I am **_**not **_**JK ROWLING and I do not own the Harry Potter books. Everything belongs to her except for the plot and my oc's. **

Gratitude's and Lakes

A week had passed since the _incident. _My cuts had closed up but scarring was very likely. Al still didn't know and I wasn't planning on telling him or anyone else for that matter. It just meant that until/unless the scarring faded sufficiently I would have to wear long sleeved shirts for a while.

The following morning after the _incident _had been a Saturday. I woke up late and scurried off to the Hall before it was too late for breakfast to find Al and James talking on the Gryffindor table. My face paled as I realised that James was probably telling Al what had happened last night and I pulled my sleeve further down my arm.

Al looked up at me standing in the doorway, smiled and waved me over. _That's weird… why was he smiling about the serious conversation I was sure we were about to have… _

I went and sat down awkwardly with Al and James, eyes darting between the two. James looked at me coldly, but Al had the same happy expression he always had on. A moment of silence passed before James got up, mumbled he had to go study and walked off.

Al opened his mouth and I braced myself for the flood of questions that was surely about to be asked and was stunned when all he said was: "So where did you disappear off to yesterday?"

At first I thought he was trying to get me to confess, but usually in situations like these he would just cut to the point. And plus he was still smiling, which meant that he still might not know….

"Er… that drink was _really _horrible and I was sick, so I went to bed early to get some rest." I waited for him to tell me I was lying but it never came.

"Cool. Maybe we shouldn't try and make drinks in the future. So I was going to go to the library today…" he carried on. He still didn't know. Yes! That meant I didn't have to tell him! I didn't want to tell him. I didn't want him to worry.

Wait. That meant that James hadn't told him. That was good. I was grateful. Maybe I should go and thank him later.

Al's sharp voice caught my attention.

"Bree, are you even listening to me?" He asked, staring at me.

"Erm, yeah, of course I am. The library." I lied. I had no idea what he had been talking about. I had totally blanched out there.

"So do you want to go down there and study?" he asked, talking slowly as if I didn't speak english.

"Erm, sure." But then my stomach growled. "I mean, after I've eaten breakfast." I added quickly.

"Right, yeah." He said while I started to grab some food and pile it on the plate in front of me. We were still sitting at the Gryffindor table, but as it was a weekend and we were in our own clothes no one really noticed.

"So, what were you and James talking about?" I asked, trying not to sound suspicious.

"Oh, he was talking about Quidditch. _Apparently _Gryffindor's gonna beat us this year." He replied casually.

"As if. Did you see our new keeper? They can try and score but I doubt they will." I added, buttering my toast.

Happy that the risk of Al finding out about the whole bathroom thing was not actually a risk, Al and I fell into easy conversation. Practice timetables for Quidditch had been handed out and, as we weren't playing until late November, the second match of the year, we only had practice twice a week. On Sunday and Wednesday afternoons.

Finishing my breakfast we headed to the library and finished off the remaining homework from that week. About halfway through Rose and Scorpius came and joined us. Rose started to go on about how we should have already finished it and started to lecture us about the importance of out NEWTs. Rose deserved to be in Ravenclaw, and when she began to explain how she was going to spend the next two hours with us sorting out our 'study timetables' Albus and I took that as a queue to leave.

Deciding that neither of us wanted to go outside we went back to the common room. Sitting down on one of the big black sofas we began a game of wizards chess, which I ungracefully lost, making up lame excuses like 'the sun was in my eye'.

The weekend consisted of trivial activities such as these, and the following week passed by without a hitch. Quidditch practice was successful and Michael kept true to his promise of being civil towards me. Prefect patrols were somewhat enjoyable as they were mostly with people I knew and got along with, making small talk most of the evening.

The week passed by like usual, though a monstrous amount of homework was being given out by the teachers, making it hard for me to find any spare time to thank James for not telling Al.

When Saturday came back around, I found myself on the way down to the lake with Al, Sophie and Alec. I was mid conversation with Alec about our potions homework when I suddenly saw James walking past, back up the hill. Al and he nodded to each other, but other than that they carried on their different paths. Suddenly, I had an idea.

"I'll catch up with you guys in a minute." I said, as I raced back up the hill to catch up with James.

"Potter!" I called out, and he turned and waited for me. He was scowling, as per usual, and I started to worry that this was a bad idea. Well, it was too late now.

"Hi." I began awkwardly.

"Hi?" His brow furrowed in confusion.

"Erm, I just wanted to thank you." When he tilted his head and his confused expression deepened I carried on. "You know, for not telling Al and… stuff." I was really not great at talking to people.

"Oh, yeah. No problem. I figured that if you wanted to tell him you would."

Silence.

"And sorry for being an arse. You were just trying to be helpful."

"Apology accepted."

Silence.

"Yes, well, I'm… going to go now."

"Okay."

"Thanks again, Potter."

And then he said something surprising. "Haus, just so you know, if those people who did that bother you again just come and tell me."

"Right. Cool. Thanks." And then we both turned and walked in different directions.

While it had been a little bit awkward I felt better having thanked him. Al often teased me about my need to thank people and be polite. He said I would go down in history as the first over polite Slytherin ever.

Halfway down the hill leading to the Black Lake, something caught my eye. Three girls stood surrounding a smaller figure. After only a couple of seconds of staring I realised it was Felicia, Elizabeth and Becky surrounding a small boy with dark curly hair who I recognised as a second year Hufflepuff.

Frowning slightly, I started to walk towards them. When I got closer enough to hear what they were saying a heavy angry feeling settled in the pit of my stomach.

"We're just trying to help you, everyone knows that half-bloods aren't as powerful as purebloods." Becky was saying, tapping her wand against the palm of her hand.

"Yeah, we just don't want you to set your goals too high and be shot down. Trust me, kid, we're doing you a favour." Felecia carried on and the anger just intensified. What I did next was probably not the best idea, and most people would of thought it through before the acted.

The problem was that the Sorting Hat had told me on my first day that I had a _Gryffindor spark _in me and that I was brave enough to belong in the house. He had then followed up with, however, that my Slytherin temper mixed with my bravery would become, instead, recklessness.

I understood what he meant now.

"Yeah, look at all the famous half-bloods that the wizarding world has ever known! Harry Potter, Albus Dumbledore, Tom Riddle. I mean, they were all half-bloods and they didn't amount to _anything."_ I said, striding into the middle of the circle.

I really had no idea how I always became so confident when I was in a conflict, but it was actually very handy. Maybe it came from the tugging feeling in my stomach. Either way I was thankful for it now.

The boy looked up at me with an expression that was hard to read. It looked like a mix of confusion, fear and awe. The last two made me feel pretty awesome but the first one kind of made it seem like I was a crazy old cat lady walking in on a top secret 007 mission briefing.

Becky turned to me, green eyes looking scarily like acid.

"Get lost, mudblood. Unless, that is, you want another beating."

"No, I think I'll just stay here with you guys." I said, crossing my arms over my chest. While the anger was causing words to flow out of my mouth a small panic started to rise in my chest. I clenched my hands in the nook of my elbows to stop them from shaking. As much as I wanted to never come across these girls again I couldn't leave this boy alone with them. _Curse my stubborn morals._

When they raised their wands I made a _tutting _sound with my tongue. "Wait just a second. I believe that the hut down there." I indicated to the small stone hut that belonged to the groundskeeper Hagrid, who I was only on name terms with because the old half giant was family friends with Al 'belongs to the groundskeeper. Who, and I'm just going on a whim here, wouldn't be too against telling the headmistress about dueling with illegal curses on school grounds.'

The three girls hesitated, wands pointing at me but remaining completely still. "Who said anything about illegal curses?" Becky asked, a cruel sneer evident in her voice.

"Looking back on last week I just sort of, you know, _assumed _that you would." I shrugged lightly.

"Who cares?" Felecia cut in. "I don't think that half-breed groundskeeper is even in his little hut at the moment anyway!"

"Oh, yeah. You're totally right." I said, trying not to let the terror cause my voice to tremble. "And it's not like we're currently in a crowded, open area with hundreds of students around us. _Oh wait."_ I raised my arms and gestured to all the students walking to and fro from the lake and those who were leisurely sitting by the water and in the shade. Out of all the students I saw Al quickly walking up the hill towards us with Sophie and Alec in hot pursuit.

_Oh thank Merlin! Back up._

By the time that they reached me Becky had described in great detail what she would do to me if I didn't walk away right now. It was rather gruesome and I don't really want to dwell on it so I'll only tell you that it included carving out my insides with eating utensils.

"Hey Bree. What's going on here?" Alec asked.

"Nothing, these three were just leaving." I pointed a stern look at the three girls. I was now substantially less scared now that I had three talented wizards behind me when our foe was only three mediocre ones.

The weird sisters – I had named them after the three witches from Macbeth – looked like they were going to explode. With what looked like great work Becky said, "Fine. We'll be on our way. Come on Liam." Liam, who I presumed was the Hufflepuff boy, looked mortified.

"Actually I think Liam should stay with us, Becky." I said, moving to stand next to Liam. When the weird sisters faces turned red again and Becky said _fine _through gritted teeth Liam's face lit up with relief.

As the three turned away I thought it was over, but almost as an afterthought Becky turned to me. She walked right up to me, leant up to my ear and said "_We'll get you when you're alone, mudblood. You cant hide behind other people for ever, and next time we won't just carve mudblood into your filthy arm." _Just loud enough so that only I could hear.

When she looked at me I tried not to let the fear appear in my face. Of course I was scared. I remembered what happened last time I ran into them on my own and I was pretty sure next time they would be even more horrible. I knew that I eventually would run into them on my own but I reckoned I had plenty of time until then to think of a plan.

After they were gone the boy turned to me. "Thank you." He said eagerly and then ran off. I was a little surprised at his sudden leave, but then again I wasn't really sure what else he was meant to do in that situation.

"What did Becky just say?" Al said looking at me with a suspicious look on his face.

"Oh, just an empty threat." I lied. If I told him the truth he would know about the mudblood thing and I didn't want him to worry. I could take care of my self, even if I evidently could not.

"So, are we going to the lake or what?" I really wanted to move on from the topic, and while at first they sounded a little stiff we soon fell back into our usual talks. Al, however, kept shooting me suspicious looks and I made a note in the back of my mind to avoid the topic at all cost with him. He would soon catch on that I was lying like he usually does.

…

As expected, the weird sisters eventually caught me on my own. Unexpectedly, however, this particular incident happened a mere four days after Becky promised another torture session on the following Wednesday.

I was going up to the infirmary because I had fallen over thin air on the way down to the Quidditch pitch with Al. Al had laughed at me but when he realised that my wrist was already swelling up from the impact he insisted that I ran up to the hospital wing and get it wrapped up for practice. "I'll tell Michael where you are and that you'll be down soon."

The castle was pretty empty. It was half five and most students were still in the Great Hall eating. I was taking a short cut to the hospital wing through a small corridor (that wasn't _strictly _within school rules to use) when I ran into some people who I _really _didn't want to see right now. Or ever.

All three of the weird sisters heads shot up when I turned a corner and came face to face with them. They were sitting with their backs against the wall with a bottle of firewhiskey between them. They rose to their feet and I cursed under my breath.

"Look who it is, Becky."

"It's our dear friend _Bree."_ Becky said in reply to Felecia's snide comment. As usual Elizabeth was watching me with a smirk on her face but was remaining quiet.

"Hey guys. Look, we all said some things that we didn't mean. We laughed, we fought, but at the end of the day we're all friends, right?"

When they moved closer towards me and my back was now up against the wall I carried on. "Slytherin's have got to stick together right?" I know I was being a coward but I really didn't want to get beat up again.

Becky was close enough to touch me now and used this to her advantage. She grabbed my right arm and pulled up my Quidditch shirtsleeve to reveal a dark red scar that clearly read out _mudblood. _

"Do you know what words I think would look nice next to this one?" She looked at me innocently, mouth carefully forming each word. "Scum. Trash. _Thief."_

"No, no. In my opinion less is more. I think if you wrote more words it would look overcrowded." I laughed nervously but Becky did not look impressed. She slapped me hard against the face.

"You just don't know when to give up do you?" Becky said and I glared at her in the most horrid way I could. My blonde hair was sprawled against my face and my left cheek stung like hell.

"Well I have been told that I have the over-ambitious reckless behavior _down."_

Becky shoved me up against the wall and I slammed my head against it. Dizziness suffocated me and I fell to the floor, slamming down on my injured wrist and hissing in pain at the contact. The three girls laughed, but suddenly I had an idea. I could feel my wand in my back pocket and the fall had made it easy to get to without a lot of movement. _Perfect._

As I got up I flailed a bit more than was necessary so that they wouldn't notice me quickly grab my wand. Luckily for me they were to busy to notice the wand in my hand and they all looked utterly surprised when I yelled "PETRIFICUS TOTALUS" at Becky. Becky froze and became an odd shade of blue. Elizabeth and Felecia looked stunned as well and I took this moment to my advantage.

I ran up to Felecia, raised my good arm and elbowed her as hard as I could in the face. I felt the contact and heard a _smack _before she fell to the ground with a big _thud._

Next was Elizabeth. At first I didn't want to hurt her that badly as she seemed sometimes hesitant at hurting me, but when I had raised my arm to elbow Felicia I got a pretty good look at the horrible letters that had been carved into my arm and I thought _You pinned me down. You helped give me this._

Needless to say I shot a stickfast hex at her, sticking her feet to the floor and raised my arm and hit her around the face with the back of my hand. I remembered that my Taekwondo teacher once told me that hitting someone with the back of your hand was far more painful and effective than punching them. By the sound Elizabeth made he was correct.

I ran as fast as I could out of that hallway, cradling my injured wrist against my stomach. When I reached the hospital wing I was out of breath and the nurse, Matron Carter, was at first curious as to why I was out of breath.

"Oh, I was running. I have Quidditch practice you see and I don't want to be late."

With one quick look at my swollen wrist she laughed. "No you are most certainly _not_!" She grabbed some cream and tenderly rubbed it on my wrist. At first it burnt when it touched my skin but soon after it turned into a tingling sensation and I could feel it instantly getting better already. "You are going to go to your common room and rest that wrist."

"You're right, Matron. I'll head right back to the common room."

I lied.

After Matron wrapped up my wrist, told me to be careful like usual (with my clumsiness I was in here _a lot_) I turned to go in the direction of the dungeons. I waited a second and then sprinted past the infirmary door and in the direction of the pitch. I made sure not to go through the short cut again and ran all the way down to the pitch.

My broom was waiting down by the side of the pitch for me – Al had carried it down for me – and I immediately got on it and flew up to meet Michael with only a small hiss of pain because of my wrist.

"I am _so _sorry I'm late, Michael, I-"

"Don't worry about it. Just don't let it happen again." He said without even looking at me. I floated there for a second in slight surprise before flying off to join my chasers.

Practice did cause a strain on my wrist but I managed to pass the quaffle around without any major problems.

After practice was over I had a brief conversation with Al reassuring him that I was alright and telling him that it didn't even hurt _– lie _– before I had to run to the changing rooms, get changed and then head up to the castle for prefect patrol.

**This chapter took **_**ages **_**to write. I wrote it all out and then decided I didn't like it so I re-wrote it, but because I wrote it before I started to upload them there shouldn't of been the long a wait for this one.**

**Not a lot of James, at the moment, but that will start changing soon. **

**I know that Bree had shown fear in the past about coming face to face with the weird sisters (tell me what you think of the name, I'm not sure I like it) but I didn't want her to be a weak character, so **_**voila, **_**she got a bit bad ass at the end of this chapter.**

**Also, I don't want Bree to be that mean-a-character. I would love for her to be the kindest most peaceful person, but unfortunately I have to give her **_**some **_**reason to be in Slytherin and so hopefully you guys have started to notice some traits in her that belong in Slytherin. **

**However, I also think that Bree would be constantly thanking people because not only is she thankful with whatever that person has done but also because she's a **_**freaking wizard **_**and she wants everyone to always know that she is very grateful for that.**

**While she does have some Slytherin traits I also like the idea of her having a bit of Gryffindor in her as well. When she sees someone in trouble she **_**must help them **_**but her bravery mixed with her Slytherin personality often becomes recklessness.**

**The stickfast hex is a spell that is used to make a target's shoes stick to the ground. **

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. As usual I am sorry for any typos I did not spot whilst editing.**

**M-F-U xx**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: Sadly I am not JK ROWLING and subsequently the Harry Potter series is not mine. Only my own characters are mine.**

Patrols and Quidditch Games

Thank merlin for magic.

Seriously, do you know how long it takes for a sprained wrist to heal? Four to eight weeks. Do you know how long it takes using magic? Two weeks.

Magic made my clumsiness so much easier to live with, and by mid October I had regained complete use of my wrist without any pain.

In fact I was back punching my friends playfully in no time at all. Not an hour before was I punching Alec's arm for some sort of idiotic and slightly sexist remark.

I had left my friends, however, to go up to Great Hall while Al, Alec, Sophie, Rose and Scorpius went up to their respected common rooms. At eight o'clock prefect patrols began. It was a Saturday, but prefect had to wear uniform for their duties and so I had gotten changed out of my comfortable jeans and Legend of Zelda t-shirt.

I had been dreading todays duties purely for one reason. Tonight would be my first patrol with James Potter and I was _not _looking forward to the three long hours of patrolling in silence.

When I reached the halls James wasn't there. I glanced down at my watch and read the time as five to eight. I partially climbed a stone statue by the hall and sat on a perch about a meter and a half off the ground.

Glancing at my watch at several intervals it turned out that James was seven minutes late. I didn't mind. It meant seven minutes less of James.

When he did finally come jogging down the hallway he stared up at me in confusion as my feet dangled over the side of a statue of a Hippogriff.

"Hi." He said, still staring at me.

"Hi." I said jumping down from the platform. For some reason, despite my clumsiness, I loved climbing and spent a lot of my childhood running around the local woods with Carmen playing _Elves of Mirkwood _and jumping from tree to tree. I will admit though that a few broken bones have been caused by this game, especially – okay, fine, _exclusively _– by me.

"You ready to go?" He asked and I nodded. He headed in the direction of the kitchens and I followed quickly, staying a couple of steps behind him. After a while he seemed to get frustrated by this. He stopped, turned to me and said "If you're gonna walk with me, walk _with _me and not _behind _me."

He looked expectantly at me and I slid two paces forwards so that I was next to him. He carried on walking and I followed, making sure to stay in step with him. We had already done a lap of the first floor in complete silence before he broke it.

"So, what did you do today?" To say the least, I was shocked by the question. He had never shown an interest in my activities before, or an interest in me in general. My lack of response made him turn to me and he must have seen my confused expression. "What, we're just meant to walk in silence for two and a half hours?" He sounded irritated and so I decided it would probably be a better idea to cooperate rather than make a snide comment.

"Erm, I studied with Al for a while, but then I got bored so I read for a bit while he and Alec had a rock throwing competition by the lake." I had not joined in with the competition because it was a regular game that we played and, unlike most things, I was pretty good at it. After a while it wasn't fun anymore because they were simply not good enough competition for me.

"And you like reading?"

"Yeah, but not like _you're _kind of books." When he looked at me in confusion – something that seemed to happen quite a lot at the moment – I carried on. "As in wizard books. I mean, of course I've _read _wizard books. You know, History of Hogwarts, Flying Squad, Enchanted Encounters," Great, now I was babbling. "But I actually prefer muggle fiction."

This time he looked at me with a curious expression on his handsome face. "So what _muggle fiction _book is your favourite?"

I really hadn't expected this from James Potter, but I wasn't about to pass up an opportunity to rant about my favourite books.

"Well that's really hard, cause you've got to take into account children's books, fantasy books, sci-fi books, classics, _sci-fi classics. _Cause, you know, in my opinion _Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy _is a classic _and _a sci-fi book so it's very hard to pick. Cause there are also the less obvious choices like Percy Jackson and Skulduggery Pleasant and…" as I carried on in my rant James looked at me in an odd sort of amusement and a smile seemed to be tugging at his lips. At the time, however, I did not notice.

"Okay then," he interrupted me as I begun to compare _To Kill A Mockingbird _to _Little Women._ "If you were stuck on a desert island and you could only pick _one _book to have with you, what would it be?"

"Book or series?"

"Does it matter?"

"Yes."

"Okay then, series."

"Oh, that's easy. Lord of the Rings."

"Lord of the Rings?" I practically gasped. I mean I knew that wizards didn't read the same books as muggles but _seriously? _He's never heard of The Lord of the Rings? _Seriously?_

"_Seriously?" _I asked in disbelief.

"Well, serious _is _my middle name." He looked at me as if waiting for me to laugh but I didn't get why. After a few moments his head dropped and he mumbled "Never mind."

"Well, Lord of the Rings is about a group of, hmmm, I don't know how to explain it. There's this evil guy called Sauron and he makes this ring which is the most powerful ring in all of Middle Earth, and he creates the huge army of orcs to destroy all of Middle Earth and so this group of people go on a quest to destroy the ring. It's a really bad description but it's the best book series in existence. In my opinion of course."

My explanation didn't seem to make a lot of sense to him but he nodded along as if he knew exactly what I was talking about.

"So… what about you? Do you read?"

"Sometimes. It's not my favourite past time but I read occasionally." I didn't know what I was expecting but this surprised me a bit. I guess because I knew him as a womanizing arsehole I didn't expect him to be the sort for a book.

"Oh." We fell back into silence and I desperately racked my brain for conversation starters. James beat me to it.

"What's Zelda?" My head snapped up to look at him at his strange comment. He looked slightly embarrassed. "It's just I saw your muggle top earlier and I was just wondering."

I completely overlooked the fact that this meant that he has seen me and remembered seeing me today. I was already getting into Zelda-rant-mode.

While people have complained about how quiet I can be, when someone got me talking about nerdy stuff or video games it took a very long time to get me to _stop _talking. "Oh, it's this video game that follows this character called Link and he has to, wait, do you even _have _video games?"

"No, but we learnt about them in Muggle Studies." Muggle studies was a subject I dropped pretty quickly. I didn't need to learn about things I already knew about.

"Ooh, tough luck, Potter. I don't think I would be able to live without some Ezio Auditore in my life." James looked at me oddly again but I decided not to explain. I didn't want to go on another rant.

"So what _do _you do?" I asked, genuinely curious. Al had told me that he spent a lot of time playing Quidditch and reading but I was absolutely at a lost of ideas as to what James could possibly do without video games, books or the internet.

"I play a lot of Quidditch."

"Well, yeah, but you can't play Quidditch _all _the time."

"I go on hikes sometimes. Just wondering around places." He ran a hand through his hair and looked slightly embarrassed as if he didn't like admitting that to people. I have no idea why he would be embarrassed but then again I was very different to James Potter.

"Cool beans." I said before I could stop myself and then immediately cringed.

"Cool beans?" He looked at me with an amused look on his face.

"It's, erm, it's a muggle term. For, you know, _cool."_

"It's an odd term."

"Yeah, well muggles tend to be slightly odd." He chuckled lightly at that.

Silence fell over us again but this time I knew exactly what I was going to say.

"So, you looking forward to the Quidditch match tomorrow?"

The Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff match was tomorrow and was the first school match of the year. Everyone was looking forward to it and friendly competition and trash talking had begun earlier that week in the Great Hall.

"I can't wait." A comfortable smile fell upon his face and his eyes practically lit up when I mentioned Quidditch. "We've been practicing all morning."

"Well I think you need to. Have you seen their new chasers? They're better than most of the players on the English team!"

"What, Robinson and his gang of third years?" James scoffed.

"Don't underestimate the team Robinson's picked out this year." I warned. Robinson had been Hufflepuff Quidditch captain for three years now and every year picked out an amazing team.

"Well I've picked out a good team too." Oh yeah, I had forgotten that James was Gryffindor captain.

Conversation fell, surprisingly, easily after this. With no drops in the conversation we debated several topics for the whole of the patrol and before we even knew it our three hours had come to an end.

"Right, well I'm gonna go get some sleep for tomorrow." He said as we arrived back at the Great Hall with my common room one way and his the other.

"Right. Good luck by the way."

"Thanks."

He smiled at me and I smiled back, and then we went our own separate ways.

…

The next day I was awakened by loud giggling; I looked over at my alarm clock which read 9:30. I didn't like getting up this late and usually got up at 8:00, but prefect patrols until 11:00 o'clock last night had made me rather tired.

I sat up in my bed for a bit, rubbing my tired eyes and patting down my wild hair. The voices of my roommates could be heard through my thick grey curtains.

"I can't wait for the match today!" Erica was saying.

"Gryffindor is so going to win!" Ellen giggled, voice slightly muffled from the curtain.

"Obviously!" Erica said back.

"I don't know, Charlie's a pretty good captain." Allison cut in. Charlie Robinson, the Hufflepuff captain, and Allison had been going out since last Easter and were totally in love. That didn't stop Allison from being any more correct about Charlie's amazing leadership skills and brilliant team he had raised form the ashes this year after last years thrashing from Slytherin.

"Yeah, but so is James Potter." I didn't even notice when Erica and Ellen burst into giggles as my stomach dropped about 100 feet as I remember the patrol last night. It had been just a talk but the fact that it was with _James Potter _who has never really spoken to me in all the years that I've known his brother made my stomach drop.

When I remembered how easy it was to talk to him after a while I made a face that must of looked like I was kind of disturbed by this fact. We had talked pretty much for two hours straight and had even laughed through a lot of it and I couldn't stop myself from thinking _what the hell?_

"Should we wake up Bree?" I heard Allison say, in which Delilah replied with: "Nah, she had patrols last night, she's probably tired. The match doesn't start for another couple of hours anyway, she has plenty of time!"

The matches usually started around eleven o'clock, and even though I _did _have plenty of time I decided it was best if I got up anyway. I opened the curtains to find a startled looking Delilah. "Oh, she's up anyway!"

"Hey, do you want us to wait for you to go to breakfast?" Allison asked.

"No, its okay. I have to find Al anyway."

"Cool, see you at the match then." Allison smiled and she left with the other girls in pursuit, only Delilah said goodbye to me though as Erica and Ellen seemed to busy whispering and giggling together.

After I tore half my hair out while trying to comb it and fell over multiple times trying to get my jeans on I headed down to the Great Hall, my mind constantly flickering to the odd occurrence that happened yesterday. We had been talking as if we had been friends for years and it made me frustratingly confused.

By the time I had reached the Great Hall I had safely crossed out Polyjuice potion and shape-shifter from the pool of possibilities as to why he was suddenly being nice.

Al was over on the Slytherin table with Jade Starke and Francis Quenton, the fourth years who sometimes sat with us, and seemed to be arguing over who was going to win todays game.

"Yeah, but Icarus is out for this match cause he's super ill at the moment, meaning that Robinson's had to pick Xander Targon to fill in." Jade was saying, twirling her fork around in Al's face.

"What, I thought he was good?" Francis said with a mouthful of toast.

Swinging my legs over the bench next to Francis I interrupted. "Yeah, but that was last year, and he hasn't been practicing with the new team at all except for the other day. He leaves his flank wide open and his flying is predictable. Alice could just leave him to spot the snitch and then follow him and she'd still get it."

"Good morning to you too." Al smiled at me and I smiled back as I shoveled a croissant into my mouth.

"My moneys on Gryffindor." I concluded. It was a shame because Hufflepuff had been working really hard for this game. On the other hand, provided that they won their other matches, they still had a chance to win the cup.

The four of us eventually decided to put money on it. Jade and Al argued that Hufflepuff still had good enough beaters to prevent Gryffindor from scoring while Francis and I said that it didn't matter because Gryffindor's chasers were too quick for the bludgers.

When quarter past ten was upon us we all got up and headed straight down to the pitch. Many Slytherins and Ravenclaws were sporting banners for their favoured team but Al and I were both too lazy to make banners.

Normally what happened at matches was that the two houses that were competing would stay in their designated area, but the students from the other houses usually went and sat with whichever team they wanted to win. It was a much better atmosphere this way.

Al was still adamant that Hufflepuff would win but we went to sit with the Gryffindor's regardless as this was where Sophie, Alec and Rose were sitting. Scorpius was on the Gryffindor team and Rose was sporting a large red and gold banner with the words 'SCOR WILL SCORE FOR GRYFFINDOR'. I thought it was cheesy but Rose insisted she was waving it _ironically._

By the time the match started all the students were impatiently waiting in the cold. It was mid October and red and yellow hats were engulfing the grounds.

"HERE WE GO FOLKS! THE PLAYERS ARE MAKING THEIR WAY ONTO THE PITCH!" Harriett Organa was a seventh year Hufflepuff who lived to make people laugh. I understood that she was good friends with Fred Weasley and was going out with Louis Weasley, Al's cousins, and so I guessed that she was probably friends with James too.

The crowd erupted into cheers and I joined in screaming _Go Scorpius! "_HERE'S THE GRYFFINDOR TEAM ON THE PITCH NOW! OH JAMES POTTER HAS PICKED A GOOD TEAM THIS YEAR! SHAME HE RUINED IT WITH HIS CRANKY ATTITUDE!" I could see James from my seat on the pitch shoot her a playful look.

"WE'VE GOT JAMES POTTER, LOUIS WEASLEY AND SCORPIUS MALFOY AS CHASERS, FRED WEASLEY AND JENNA COLE AS BEATERS, ISSABELLE GALLOWS AS KEEPER AND ALICE LONGBOTTOM AS SEEKER. BRILLIANT TEAM!"

"ON THE HUFFLEPUFF TEAM, _the best house, _WE'VE GOT LYSANDER SCAMANDER AS KEEPER, JESS WHITE AND CHARLIE ROBINSON AS BEATERS, XANDER TARGON AS SEEKER, MATILDA CORKSON, RHEA STICKS AND FRANK LONGBOTTOM AS CHASERS. OH I THINK WE HAVE SOME SIBLING RIVALRY HERE WITH THE LONGBOTTOM KIDS!" Frank and Alice gave each other menacing looks and both teams mounted their brooms after James and Charlie shook hands.

Madam Hooch, an elderly witch with blinding white hair and sharp yellow eyes, rose up on her broom so that she was level with the players. Although I could not hear what she was saying over the noise and distance I had played enough Quidditch matches to know that she was saying that she wanted a clean and fair fight.

And then the whistle blew and Harriet screamed _GO! _Both teams had shot to the Quaffle and Bludgers and before I knew it Tilly Corkson had the Quaffle.

"CORKSON PASSES TO STICKS, WHO PASSES TO LONGBOTTOM, WHO PASSES BACK TO STICKS WHO SHOOTS AND… WOAH! WHAT A GREAT SAVE FROM GALLOWS! POTTER TAKES THE QUAFFLE AND… THAT WAS A CLOSE BLUDGER! POTTERS STILL GOT THE QUAFFLE AND HE PASSES IT MALFOY WHO PASSES IT BACK TO POTTER, WHO PASSESS IT BACK TO MALFOY, WHO PASSES TO WEASLEY WHO SHOOTS… AND ITS IN! 10-0 TO GRYFFINDOR!"

Cheers erupted from around where I was sitting and I pumped my fist in the air while Al and Alec raised their arms and where _WOOOING _in each other's faces. I could just about hear Harriet scream "_Go Lou!" _to which Louis Weasley waved at her.

When the cheering died down Harriet began talking again. "LONGBOTTOM STARTS WITH THE QUAFFLE AND THEN PASSES TO CORKS… GREAT INTERCEPTION BY MALFOY! MALFOY PASSES TO WEASLEY WHO PASSES BACK AND… MALFOY DROPS IT! CORKSON PICKS IT UP AND FLYS RIGHT TO THE HOOPS. SHE PASSES TO LONGBOTTOM LAST MINUTE WHO SHOOTS AND… SCORES! WHAT A GREAT SHOT FROM LONGBOTTOM!"

It was the Hufflepuff side of the stadium's turn to cheer this time. Harriet gave Louis an encouraging thumbs up. It really was going to be a tough match. Both teams were brilliant and I was beginning to doubt that Gryffindor was definitely going to win.

The rest of the match went on pretty much like this, but Hufflepuff was still 50 points ahead. Al looked at me pointedly every time Hufflepuff scored a goal, and I shot him a similar look every time Gryffindor scored. I assured him that I still thought Gryffindor would catch the snitch but every time Hufflepuff gained more points on Gryffindor my stomach dropped. I _really _didn't want to loose this bet; I had a date with Honeydukes next week in Hogsmeade and I needed the money.

The score was 70-130 to Hufflepuff when Alice caught sight of the Snitch. All of a sudden she zoomed off around the stadium and after a while Xander was hot on her tail. He kept up with her surprisingly well – enough to make my heart skip a beat in fear that Al would win the bet – but his efforts were thwarted when at last Alice's gloved hands wrapped themselves around the gold orb.

"AND ITS OVER FOLKS! LONGBOTTOM – _GRYFFINDOR _LONGBOTTOM – HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH. GRYFFINDOR WIN 220–120. WELL DONE GRYFFINDOR!"

I would be surprised if my hearing was damaged due to all the cheering.

…

"Al, do you really think we should stay at the _Gryffindor _party?" I asked. We were standing outside the Gryffindor portrait hole while other people climbed through into the common room. They weren't all Gryffindor's to be honest – I was pretty sure I'd seen Erica and Ellen climb through earlier – but I still felt like I didn't belong here.

"Nonsense, James invited me." Al was tugging at my arm but I was being stubborn and I hung onto the railing for dear life.

"Exactly, he invited _you_."

'Sorry, bad wording. He invited _us._'

"Yes, because that is a totally believable story." I said with a completely flat voice to amplify the sarcasm. While I remembered how easily James and I had talked and while I had, only for a second, thought it might have been a turning point for us I had decided on our way up here that it was only because there was no one else there to talk to.

"He did!" Al said defensively. "He said: _Hey there Al, do you wanna come to the Gryffindor party? Oh yeah, you can bring your Slytherin friend as well!" _He was doing his best James impression and despite myself I laughed.

"I still don't know, Al. I just don't want to be the _Slytherin _friend at a _Gryffindor _party." Al gave me an understanding look. "Go on your own." I really didn't want him to go. Letting him go would mean me walking to the other side of the castle. _Alone. _I knew I was being paranoid about running into the weird sisters but I could constantly feel my scars. They hadn't faded yet.

"Nah, it won't be any fun without you." I smiled a little. "Can we please just pop in and say congrats to James?" I nodded, finally caving when Al shot me his puppy dog eyes.

The Fat Lady didn't even ask for the password. During my second year house parties were so popular that Professor McGonagall had eventually decided just to let the students wander form common-room to common-room on these nights instead of having to deal with angry portraits complaining about students hexing and lying their ways in.

When he stepped through I was suddenly overwhelmed at the chatter and the loud music. Occasionally the music would drift into a muggle song and I felt as if I were back in Surrey again.

The Gryffindor common room was _amazing. _Unlike the Slytherin common room, where everything was gothic and cold, this room was shrouded in reds and warm golds. It was extremely welcoming and I found myself yearning for a nicer common room than our one in the dungeon. I know that I said earlier I_ liked _my common room, and I _did. _It was just that this had more of a homey mood to it.

Al was already looking around for James when his eyes stopped at a corner behind me. When I looked around my chest hitched.

James' tall figure was wrapped around a small dark haired girl. It took me a moment to realise it was Erica. It took me another moment to realise that they were _kissing. _

Okay, kissing was a bit of an understatement. They were full on snogging. Normally when I'd see this sort of public affection I would brush it off with a quick _ew _and a complaint to Al concerning why they had to do it in front of everyone.

I wasn't a prude. I had done my fair share of kissing with my first and last boyfriend, Matthew - a sixth year Ravenclaw who ended it when he wanted to focus on his OWLS. At first I had been hurt, heartbroken even, but after a while I got over him. We still talked sometimes. That was back in early fifth year.

My stomach dropped about 100 feet and I guess it was because I had not been expecting to see the two of them sticking their tounges down each others throats. I knew that he was a womanizer and that Erica was into him but it was kind of off putting seeing the two of them kissing.

"I guess he's a bit busy." Al joked and I shrugged in response. "Come on, we might as well go."

And so we left.

**FINALLY I HAVE FINSIHED THIS CHAPTER!**

**It wouldn't have been a very long wait for you because I hadn't started posting the chapters when I wrote this one but **_**it took me so long. **_

**I suddenly got re-obsessed with my Assassins Creed games and finally got out the house to go shopping which resulted with in me buying six new books. So I was really distracted when writing this chapter but its okay because it's finished now!**

**Already many references have been slipped in to this story, some more obvious than others! I've decided to play a game with you guys: find as many as you can and then post them in the reviews! (Only if you want to of course)**

**Just to let you guys know now – because I'm pretty sure that it won't ever be mentioned again in this story – that Icarus Nobilis (yes, he is meant to be the brother of Allison) was ill because of the full moon and because he is a werewolf in this story. It's not important to the plot, I just liked the idea of having a wealthy pureblood werewolf.**

**Thank you so much for the reviews! They brighten my day and inspire me to write more :)**

**Hope you guys enjoyed it!**

**M-F-U**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: The Harry Potter series belongs to the wonderful JK ROWLING and so sadly, I do not own them. Only my own characters are mine.**

**I should also probably mention that this fic is a T for sexual references as well.**

_Hogsmeade and Disconcerting Letters_

To tell you the truth Erica and Ellen were not my favourite two people on the planet. I put up with them because I shared a room with them, but truth be told they both gossiped too much, they squealed too often and they swooned over boys more often than I appreciated. They wore their skirts too short and made sure their jumpers were as tight as possible. They were definitely _not _my sort of crowd and waking up to hear their giggles annoyed me daily.

But today their giggles seem like a walk in the park. I could deal with the snobbish remarks on a girl's hair, or the mindless and probably incorrect gossip, but what I couldn't deal with was a painfully detailed description of James' naked body.

Apparently after Erica and James finished making out he took her to some room in the castle and they, well, had sexual intercourse with one another. My stomach lurched uncomfortably and I took this as my queue to leave. I got out of there as soon as possible.

I probably looked mad walking down the corridor trying to shake the idea of James and Erica out of my head. I was concentrating so hard on not thinking about it that I didn't have time to stop when I walked into James Potter turning a corner. For the second time this term. Great.

"Sorry, Haus." _Don't think of him with Erica. In that situation. Don't. Stop. _

"You okay? You look a little…"

"Agghh, stop talking!" I sidestepped around James careful not to touch him.

"Bridgette, what are you doing?" James called after me but I just kept walking.

When I reached the Great Hall I quickly found Al sitting on the end of the Slytherin table scribbling the last of his Potions essay down before class this morning. Desperate to distract myself I dived into conversation.

"You know Al, I couldn't help notice that Gryffindor won."

"What are you getting at?" Al looked up at me curiously from his parchment.

"Oh, I was just wondering where my ten galleons were."

His face fell at the mention of the bet he lost. "You're not really going to make me pay you, are you?"

"I'm afraid so, Al. Second Hogsmeade trip is this weekend and I've got some serious Honeydukes purchases planned." I was, of course, lying. I was planning on buying Al a birthday present. Al's birthday was on the 23rd of November and so I only had two weeks to buy him a present. Normally I bought him muggle stuff but this summer I forgot.

"You're unbelievable." Al said while he reached over to his satchel and searched for ten galleons. He slid the gold coins over the table to me. "Have your money you corrupt, money-grabbing, acquisitive, avaricious venal wench."

"I applaud you for your wide range of vocabulary. Because of that sophisticated language I will give you one galleon." I slid one of the gold coins back to him. "Buy yourself something pretty."

Al scowled at me but pocketed the coin anyway before returning to his essay. I decided to enlighten him on what I heard this morning. He would probably appreciate it.

With a mouthful of toast I asked: "You speak to James at all this morning?" Al looked up at me with narrowed eyes.

"No, why?"

"Oh, I just thought you should know that apparently he hooked up with Erica Lavern last night." His face froze which was the reaction I was hoping for. Al and I were not unaccustomed to hearing about James' hook ups but our reactions were always the same.

"Why do you tell me these things? I don't want to know that my brother shagged Erica." After a moment he added "Why Erica? I thought she was horrible."

"Eh, she can be a cow but she's got a nice face." I grabbed another bit of toast.

"How did you hear about it?"

"Well, let me think. I share a dorm with Erica, and Erica tells Ellen everything so let's see… I got a pretty detailed story about it when I woke up."

"Ew." Silence. "What did she say?"

"Apparently he was good."

"That it?"

"Okay, a, I don't _really _want to think about the _painfully _detailed re-telling I just heard and b, why are you so interested?"

"Because he's my brother. And I may need to know this sort of stuff for blackmail. Knowing about his sex life could really come in handy in the future."

"You might want to stop talking about James' sex life; Lily's on her way over." One second later on red headed Lily potter sat down next to Al. Lily was in Hufflepuff and was in her fourth year. I loved Lily, she reminded me of Carmen a bit and I treated her like a little sister. Al adored her even if he complained about her sometimes.

"Hey Lil's, what's up?" Al asked.

"Shut up Al, I'm here to talk to Bree." Lily said and Al stared at his sister in mock hurt.

"Close your mouth, Al, you look like a goldfish." I turned to Lily. "Hey Lily, you okay?"

"Yeah, I just need help with my muggle studies essay." She slid some parchment over to me and I picked it up to read it. "I'm still really confused as to what a computer is and does."

I briefly explained what a computer did and Lily scribbled down what I was saying onto the parchment. When I was done she grabbed some of Al's breakfast off his plate and ate it, much to Al's frustration.

"So, why were you two talking about James' sex life?"

Al turned to face her. "How do you even know about sex?"

"Al, I'm fifteen."

"Get lost Lily."

Lily sighed and grabbed some more of Al's breakfast and got up. "Thanks for your help, Bree. Al, nice talking to you as usual."

As she wondered off Al muttered a series of sentences that sounded an awful lot like "Damn annoying girl. Why'd she have to take my breakfast? There's a whole table of food over there."

The rest of our week was longer than usual. Erica was going on about how she and James were in love and that they were going out. I had an eighteen-inch essay to complete for Transfiguration. Prefect patrols were an absolute drag.

I was completely and whole heartedly looking forwards to the Hogsmeade trip and made sure that Al was up early to get down to Hogsmeade as soon as possible. It was a cold and frigid day and so I was wearing my yellow duffle coat and a big woolen hat. Alec agreed to meet us by the quad to walk down with us but, as usual, he was late. It was already half ten by the time he showed up.

The walk down to Hogsmeade took about 10 minutes and Alec, Al and I were busy arguing the whole way down.

"No way is your patronus better than mine." Alec was saying to me.

"Please," I scoffed. "Your patronus is a freaking meerkat. Mines a fox, mine is obviously better."

"Yes, the fox: a sly, manipulative mammal. Known for their short tempers and vixen like personality." Al added.

"Shut up, Owl boy. The fox also happens to be an extremely gregarious and loyal animal. Owls are just plain and boring."

"Hey, it's wise and smart! It's way better than a meerkat!"

"You guys are just annoyed because yours are cold and _evil _animals because you're in the cold and evil house. My patronus is a social and loyal animal because I'm in Gryffindor."

"Did you not just hear me say that the fox is a gregarious animal?"

"Yes, but I don't know what it means."

"It means sociable!"

"How in Merlin's name are _you _sociable, Bree?"

"Hey, I'm an extremely sociable person! I have loads of friends!"

"Who? Me, Alec, Sophie, Rose and Scorpius?"

"There's also Allison and Delilah!"

"Please, when do you talk to them outside of your room?"

The walk down to the village consisted purely of this argument. We were still arguing when we got down there.

"I'm going to head off to Tomes and Scrolls," I told them. I knew neither of them would want to come with me, which is why I said it. I had every intention to go and buy Al his birthday present.

"Can we meet you in the three broomsticks? Rose, Scorpius and Sophie are meant to meet us down there." Alec asked and I nodded.

"Yeah, sure. When I come back I hope that you will of accepted that my patronus is the best one." A collection of _yeah right_'s and _sure it is_ came my way but I was already wandering off down the street.

I hadn't been planning to actually go into Tomes and Scrolls but as I walked past the window to see a new display of books that I hadn't read yet I decided _what the hell. _I walked in to find a few students walking around and quickly grabbed a couple of books and paid for them, saying _have a good day _to the shop owner before stepping back outside into the cold air.

I hadn't been planning on entering Honeydukes either but it was on the way to Zonkos and I was dangerously low on my chocolate frog stash. Once I had brought two sugar quills – one for me, one for Carmen – and a couple of chocolate frogs I decided that I would not go into any other shops before Zonkos.

But then I walked past Gladrags Wizardwear and I suddenly found myself inside. This time, though, I did actually buy something for Al. Gladrags was known for its brightly coloured socks that started to scream when they got too smelly. I got a pair of bright orange ones for Al; I wasn't going to tell him they were the ones that screamed though. He could figure that out on his own.

Finally I found myself actually walking around Zonko's. I was busy looking at a box of Follow-Flies (a box of little charmed plastic flies which would follow the victim around for hours making annoying buzzing sounds) when I was tapped on the shoulder. I turned around fully expecting it to be Sophie, Rose or Scorpius but to my surprise it was James Potter.

"Hey James." I asked with a slightly confused tone. I looked behind him to see if anyone else was there and I saw Fred, Louis and Harriett looking at a display of dung bombs.

"Hey Bridgette. Is Al here?" His face was red from the cold and his scarf was wrapped tightly around his neck and chin.

"No, sorry, he's at…"

"Oh good." After a moment of silence he added, "I'm here buying him a birthday present."

"Oh, me too. What are you getting him?" _Why was he talking to me? He hated me. _But then again why did I have to go and encourage a conversation by asking him questions?

"Well I was gonna get him some Nose Biting Teacups but not tell him that they're nose biting so he'll get a nasty shock when he tries to drink out of it."

I laughed slightly. "That's what I'm gonna do too! I mean, not with the tea cups, I got him some of the screaming socks from Gladrags but not tell him they're screaming."

"Oh I hate those socks. I got them for Fred one year. They wouldn't stop screaming for a whole week!" Fred looked up and shot James' back a _what the hell, why would you tell her that _face which James, obviously, did not see.

My brow furrowed. "Wait, why would Al think that you just got him _normal _tea cupsfor his birthday?" James' brow furrowed too.

"Hmm, maybe I'll tell him that they make water turn to Butterbeer." He said after a moment of consideration.

"Yep, that will get him to drink it." We both laughed slightly awkwardly.

We were now in a rather uncomfortable silence. I choose to break it. "Where's Erica? I would of thought that you would have been with her."

"Why?"

He answered so quickly that it took me a second to realise that I needed to answer. "I thought you two were going out…"

Recognition flashed across his face. "Oh _shit. _I was meant to meet her at the three broomsticks." He ran off towards the till with his Nose Biting Teacup. Just as I was about to turn around he called across the store. "Bye Bridgette!"

"Where's he going?" Fred came up to speak to me. I had never spoken to Fred before but Al had told me all about his love for pranks. His father owned Weasley Wizard Wheezes – Zonko's competitor, which I personally preferred – and every year he brought with him a new stash of practical jokes to unleash on unsuspecting first years.

"Erm, I guess he forgot he had a date with Erica." I replied as Louis and Harriett came to stand with us. I felt very out of place and very awkward.

"Erica Lavern? That will never last." Harriett said. "Come on guys, lets get out of here." She took Louis by the hand and they both nodded at me. I nodded back a bit hesitantly. "Bye." Fred said and walked off after them. I'm not sure he even knew my name.

I was still completely confused as to why James suddenly thought I was worth talking to. Deciding not to waste any more time thinking about it I bought Al an assortment of pranks that I was sure he would probably use on either Rose or Lily.

When I got to the Three Broomsticks I found Al, Alec and Sophie sitting in a booth. On the other side of the Inn I could see James and Erica sitting at a table; Erica looked like she was talking her head off and James looked like he would rather be stuck in a cage with a dragon.

"What took you so long?" Al asked as I sat down.

"Tomes and Scrolls had a new stock. I was just checking it all out." I lied. Sometimes I felt bad about lying to my friends but when it was for their own benefit I didn't mind so much. I made sure that the Zonko's and Gladrags bags were tucked safely in my messenger bag.

"I got you a Butterbeer." Alec said sliding the drink over to me. I was about to say thank you when Sophie punched him on the shoulder.

"Shut up, Alec. I got here that Butterbeer!"

"Oh, thanks Soph." I took a sip of the drink and my throat instantly warmed up. I always thought that Butterbeer tasted slightly like caramel; only better.

"Wait, Sophie could be lying! Why don't you believe that I got you that drink?"

Al laughed and Alec gave him a dirty look. "Yeah, like you'd ever spend your own money on someone else unless you had to." Alec looked like he was about to say something back which I guessed would probably have some cussing in so I changed the subject.

"Where's Rose and Scorpius?"

"Oh, they wanted to go shopping. Together. _Alone._" Sophie said with a smirk on her face.

"I wish they would just hurry up and admit that they love each other already." Alec said taking a swig of what looked like firewhiskey.

Al laughed. "That should be fun for her dad."

"Eh, What can you do?" I shrugged.

…

"Post's here." Al said and I looked up at the swarm of owls that had just flown into the Great Hall. It was a week until Al's birthday and he had been fighting with James for the past four days about whether or not he was going to throw a party. Al was set on not having one, but every time Al told James he didn't want a party James would say "No brother of mine is going to spend his birthday sitting in an empty common room with his only friend!" Al took offense to this, reminding his big brother that I wasn't his only friend.

"I can see Apollo." Al pointed out as my owl, Apollo, came and dropped a pile of letters down on my plate before flying off to the Owlery. Apollo was a white owl with golden tips on his feathers. He hated me, but I still loved him.

"Oh, what did I get?" I tore open the envelope to the first letter. It was from my Grandmother from Germany. She never wrote to me and I eagerly read to see what she had to say. The writing was scrawled over the paper in messy German and it took me a moment to figure out what it said.

"What's it say?" Al asked.

I looked at him disappointedly. "It's nothing. Apparently cousin Madge is getting married."

"Oh yes. The joining of two people in matrimonial love is nothing."

"Shut up. I was expecting better news than that. I haven't even spoken to Madge in ten years, why's she telling me?"

I opened up the second letter. It was from my mother apologising for not writing last week. She told me that my father and she were very busy at the moment and that they looked forward to seeing me at Christmas. The usual.

The third and last letter was from my sister.

_Dear Bree,_

_ Thank you very much for the Sugar Quill, I wish I had something to send over but I already spent my pocket money on some hair ties. Sorry._

_ School is going really good. I've made a lot of friends and my teachers all seem nice. I still wish I was at Hogwarts with you but I still really like my school. _

_ You said to write to you if I needed advice on anything. Don't worry, everything's fine at school. It's mum and dad. They're fighting again. They have been since you left. I know what you're going to say – Why didn't you tell me? Well I didn't want you to worry and I kind of hoped that it would breeze over like it did in the summer. _

_ But it hasn't and it's getting really bad. Bree, dad's sleeping on the _sofa. _I'm really worried that I'm not helping either. I wish you were here. You'd know what to do. Sorry to worry you but please if you could tell me how to help._

_ Carmen _

I swore under my breath. Mum and dad had been fighting for a while but I didn't think it was so bad that dad would be on the_ sofa _because of it. I really wanted to go home and be there for my family, but obviously I couldn't be.

"You okay?" I looked up to find Al with a concerned expression on his face.

"Yeah, it's just, well…" I didn't know what to say so I just slid the letter over to Al who read it quickly. When he had finished he looked at me sympathetically.

"Shit, sorry Bree."

"It's okay. They've been fighting all summer so I don't know what I was expecting. I just wish I could be there for them, you know?"

"You'll see them at Christmas though."

"That's true." I started on my reply.

_Carmen,_

_ Don't worry too much about mum and dad. They're just going through a rough patch right now. Just make sure that you're helping as much as you can at home and try not to be too much of a pain in the ass! Try and make it a less stressful place._

_ I'll be home soon to help out but in the meantime just help out as much as you can._

_ I'm glad to hear about school though; keep up the good work!_

_ Bree x_

Afterwards I started on a reply to my mother.

_Dear mum,_

_ It was nice to hear from you; it's okay if you've been busy this week. _

I had no idea what to write next. I didn't really want to confront her about her arguing with dad in a letter but I felt like I had to. For Carmen.

_I hope you're not fighting too much with dad. Carmen's going through a hard transition right now and I can't be there for her. Just promise me that even if you and dad keep arguing that you'll look after Carmen and make sure that she doesn't think this is her fault, okay?_

_ Looking forward to seeing you at Christmas,_

_ Bree _

I wrote a quick reply to Grandma Haul as well and stuffed the letters back in my pocket. "I'm off to the Owlery." Before Al could say anything I ran off out of the Hall. I hadn't been planning on going outside this morning and I only had my school jumper as a second layer.

Bye the time I got to the Owlery my fingers were blue and my teeth were chattering. I had every intention to send Apollo away with the letters and get back inside as soon as possible but I hadn't planned on bumping into someone up by the Owlery.

"Oh, hey Bridgette."

"Hey, James." I had stopped in my tracks momentarily and slowly started to walk again in the direction of Apollo. "What brings you up here?"

"Letter's"

"Right. Obviously."

"Actually, I've been meaning to talk to you." He took a step towards me. He was dressed for the cold weather, wearing a brightly coloured scarf and fingerless gloves over his robes. He was tapping some letters against the palm of his hand.

"You were?" My eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Yeah. So, as you know Al refuses to have a birthday party and I was hoping that maybe…"

"Wait, you want me to convince him?"

"No, I wanted your help in throwing him a surprise birthday party." He looked at me expectantly and I looked back at him blankly for a moment.

"You sure that's a good idea? I'm pretty sure when he said he didn't want a party he meant that he –"

James interrupted me, taking another step towards me. "No, because you see, he _wants _a party really. Deep down."

"I'm not sure…"

"Deep, _deep _down."

"Erm…" I wasn't entirely sure what to say.

"Look, my mum agrees with me. We both think that it's important when you're young to celebrate these sort of things." Doubt was still obviously apparent on my face because he added, "It doesn't have to be a big one."

"Why do you need my help though?"

"Well, it's just I figured you're his best friend. You'll know best what he'll want."

I thought about it for a second. While I was still not sure that Al would _completely _be grateful for a party I decided it would still be fun to plan and it wasn't everyday you got a _small _party at Hogwarts. I liked parties but only small ones with people I actually liked.

"Okay then."

"_Please_, I just – wait, did you say okay?"

"Yeah. Why the hell not?"

"Great! We have prefect duty this week, why don't we talk about it then?" I had completely forgotten about the prefect patrol with him and so I only replied with a weak "Yeah, sure."

"Thanks so much, Bridgette." He smiled at me and I awkwardly turned to look for Apollo. I guess James turned around to his owl too because the next time I saw him his letters were gone. I was too busy getting annoyed at Apollo though.

"Apollo, please, _please, _just come down here." Apollo stared down at me as if he were judging me. I was on my third attempt on getting Apollo to come down and desperation was evident in my voice.

"You need help there?" Slightly startled that James was still here I turned around quickly.

"No, no. I'm fine. Apollo just likes to be stubborn sometimes. He's really a lovely owl." Just then, as if to purposely contradict my point (which he probably _was _doing) Apollo swooped down and attacked my head in one quick and clean hit. James looked like he was trying hard not to laugh and I was sure my hair was now sticking up on it ends. "This is just a game we play."

"Here, let me help." James said chuckling. He walked past me and smiled at the devil-owl. "Come on, Apollo. Down you come." I was about to scoff and tell him that I had tried that a million times when, to my amazement, Apollo flew down gracefully and settled down on a perch on James' arm.

"What in the name of Merlin? That bird hates me! Why is he being nice to you?" I asked in frustration as Apollo leant into James' pats on his head.

James looked at me smugly. "He doesn't hate you, you just have to be gentle with him."

"I _am_!" I said almost manically which caused him to laugh more.

He motioned for me to give the letters to Apollo and I moved towards them. Being as gentle as I could I held them out for him to take and he snatched them up in his beak. After he bit me of course.

Apollo flew away and I stared down at my rapidly bleeding hand. "I take it back. That bird does hate you." James said and then concern fell on his face as he saw just how much blood was pouring out of my hand.

"Ooh, that looks bad, let me see." I was about to protest and tell him Apollo was capable of a lot worse when he took my hand into his and stared intently at it. "You should probably head down to the Hospital Wing, just incase." As if it was a second thought he also added, "Merlin, your hands are cold."

He looked up at me and it seemed like he only just realised I was only wearing a thin jumper over my uniform. "Why aren't you wearing a scarf or something?"

"I was only planning on nipping out; I didn't realise it would be this cold." I had started to bounce on the balls of my feet. He let go of my hand and started to take of his bright scarf. When I realised what he was doing I started to protest but James had already wrapped it around my neck regardless.

"You really didn't have to do that." I said, but I was grateful he did. Already I felt about ten times warmer.

"Don't worry about it, I didn't like it anyway." He paused for a second before saying, "Anyway, I have to go. I have some homework I need finished for next lesson. Bye."

"Bye." I watched him leave and I awkwardly stood there for a minute before following him down. I didn't want him to feel inclined to talk to me on the way to the castle.

On the way to the infirmary I was completely baffled as to why he had given me his scarf. Even if you could argue he was being a gentleman it didn't answer why he was being a gentleman to _me. _

I wrapped it tighter around my neck and it just smelt of, well, of _James. _I'd never smelt him before (Okay, it sounds really creepy when you put it like that) and I'd never really thought about what he smelt like. But the scarf smelt like peppermint and vanilla and I now I couldn't imagine him smelling like anything else.

The day went on as usual. Al commented on my scarf but for some reason I didn't want to tell him that it was his brother who gave it to me. I was already super confused as to why James was being nice to me and I didn't really feel like explaining it all to Al.

"Thank you, I personally think that the colour brings out my pale skin." I said cheerfully. Al seemed hesitant but he let it go regardless.

I was genuinely beginning to forget that anything unusual had happened all day - but then I got back to my dorm. Allison and Delilah were gone and only Erica and Ellen were in the room.

Usually when I entered the room and they were there they would just glance up at me but otherwise ignore me. This time though when their heads snapped up Erica's eyes shot to the scarf still around my neck.

"Where in merlin's name did you get that scarf?" Erica asked rather aggressively.

"Erm," I asked nervously. I had no idea what was going on and was, quite frankly, a little scared of the crazy look in Erica's eyes. "What?" I asked hesitantly, eyes darting to Ellen to see if she would tell me what was happening.

"Where did you get that scarf?" Erica had now gotten to her feet and every slow word that she said she took a small step towards me. She raised her eyebrows as she asked sharply, "Did you steal it?"

I didn't like the fact that she was talking to me like I was an idiot and I crossed my arms defensively. "Why would I steal it? Merlin, Erica, what's got your wand in a knot?"

"Why did you steal that scarf from James Potter?" _Wait, so she thought that I had _stolen _it from James?_

"No, no! I didn't _steal _it! He gave it to me! I was cold so he gave me his scarf." I smiled trying to calm her down.

She looked at Ellen and then back at me. "Why would James give you the scarf I brought him?"

"Oh, he said he didn't like it anyway so…" and then as Erica's face flamed up into an angry red colour I realised what she had said. And then what I had said.

James had given me the scarf that his girlfriend had (presumably) just brought for him. Despite the furious look on Erica's face I covered my mouth and tried not to laugh. It didn't work. This was something that only happened in cartoons but it was happening _right now._

Ellen appeared to find it rather funny too because she looked away, hiding a smile on her face and covering up a laugh with a cough.

Erica looked like her head was about to explode and with an angry huff stormed out of the room. I started to laugh uncontrollably and collapsed onto my bed. After Erica left Ellen started to laugh too, not as much as me but her shoulders were still shaking violently.

After a while she cleared her throat. "I'm gonna go see where she went. You might want to take it off before she gets back." Ellen smiled at me and then ran after her friend.

By the time they returned I was already fast asleep.

**This chapter was **_**way **_**longer than I planned on it being, but the more I wrote the more I wanted to write. Before I realised I was writing too much I had decided to write about the party James and Bree are going to throw Al so I think that I will just have the next chapter about that.**

**Hope you enjoyed it. Reviews are appreciated! **

**M-F-U**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: Let's just get this over and done with: I am not JK ROWLING. As much as I would love to have her imagination and to be able to own the Harry Potter world I do not – and if I did I certainly wouldn't of killed off so many great characters! Only my own characters are mine.**

_Party Planning and Baking Cakes_

Every single time Erica saw me over the next few days she scowled at me and would huff angrily before turning sharply on her heel and walking away, dark hair bouncing behind her. I didn't really _care, _but it wasn't great having Erica's friends scowling at me too. I guess Erica told them I was trying to steal her boyfriend or something; but stealing James Potter from Erica was far from the top of my list. She could have him for all I cared.

Contrary to what I may of lead on so far I still rather disliked James. Sure, it was easy to talk to him and he _did _seem nicer towards me, none of these things made up for six years of making me feel like garbage.

Still, it would have been nice not to have had the words _boyfriend stealing mudblood whore _scribbled onto a piece of parchment and stuffed in my satchel when I wasn't looking.

Ellen seemed to be on the receiving end of Erica's scowls too. Apparently finding your best friends misfortunes funny doesn't put you in great terms with your best friend. Ellen was sulking around with Delilah and Allison and their friends but looked miserable without Erica. Erica was hanging around with her cousin, Felecia – yes, _that _Felecia – but I was certain that the two best friends would be talking again within the week.

I hadn't worn the scarf once since I found out it was a gift from Erica. I stuffed it deep in my trunk with the intention of giving it back to James when we had our prefect patrol. I was angry at James for giving it to me, to be honest. It made me seem like a boyfriend stealer to most of Slytherin house – and likely the school – and it made James look like a horrible boyfriend. Which, when you look at the evidence, he probably was.

Still, I was secretly looking forward to the prefect patrol that night. Planning Al's birthday party had been on my mind ever since James had suggested it at the Owlery.

When eight o'clock was nearly upon the students of Hogwarts I said goodbye to the small group of friends I was sitting with in the common room. Before leaving the common room, however, I ran up the stone stairs to my dorm room to grab James' scarf which was still stuffed in my trunk. Afraid that Erica – who was also in the common room – would see it I stuffed it under my jumper. It was obvious that something was tucked under there but no one questioned it anyway when I walked back through the common room.

When I reached the Great Hall James was already waiting for me. Originally I panicked, fearing that I was late. James didn't seem like the sort of person to be on time for things like patrols – and my first patrol with him was evidence to that – but after looking down at my watch I saw that he was actually _early._

When I reached him I kind of just stood there awkwardly until he noticed me, and when he finally did notice me I kind of wished that he hadn't. Because I still had his scarf tucked under my jumper making it look like I had adipose crawling out of me.

"Hey, Bridgette… what's that?" He asked hesitantly and I narrowed my eyes at first. When I realised that he was pointing at my jumper I could practically feel my face turn red.

I quickly ripped the scarf out from my jumper, my stomach twisting uncomfortably. _Why didn't I take it out before I got here? _I had assumed I'd get here before him but still; he probably thought I was weirder than he originally thought I was.

Handing it to him I stammered: "I can explain why that was tucked under my jumper."

He looked highly amused. "Please do," Just before I was about to reply he continued. "Actually, please _don't._" He didn't say it maliciously. In fact, he said it with a huge grin on his face, but it still _felt _horrible. _Crap, _I thought, _he's probably going to tell his friends that I have a weird crush on him and that I like to stuff his belongings up my jumpers. _

Luckily he had already begun walking and so he didn't see my face blush even more. Red faces do _not _compliment pale blonde hair. I followed after him, having to jog slightly to catch him up.

"You know, I didn't ask for it back." He said wrapping the orange scarf around his neck.

"Yeah, but Erica was angry that I even _had _it. I doubted Erica would have been happy if I had _kept_ it, so." I shrugged, hoping that my red face was disappearing.

"Oh, right." He didn't sound phased by the fact that his girlfriend had caught him giving his scarf to a girl who was not her.

"You don't care that she found out you gave her gift away?" I asked slightly shocked.

"Why should I?" he looked down at me. I wasn't short for my age - actually, I was quite tall compared to Rose and Sophie – but James was still quite a bit taller than me.

I made a scoffing noise in the back of my throat, unable to find words to reply to this. "It was horrible anyway." He said, looking at me like it was an obvious and perfect excuse to do this. It was sweet when he had given me his scarf, but now it was weird after learning that he had given me something his brand new girlfriend had gotten him. "I mean, it's _orange. _Who buys someone an _orange _scarf?"

I shrugged, still taken back by his bluntness.

"Any way," he looked back up at the corridor we were walking through. "Let's talk about Al's party."

"Okay."

"Okay."

"Erm, why don't we start with the location?" I had been thinking about the Gryffindor Common Room. It wasn't ours but most of Al's friends and family were in Gryffindor and it had a nice homey feel to it. Apparently James had a different idea though.

"Already sorted. Follow me." Just as he said it he turned down a corridor which led to the seventh floor.

"We're going now?"

"Why wouldn't we?"

"Maybe because we're _prefects. _On prefect _patrol_."

"It won't take long. Stop being so touchy." This comment annoyed me a bit and I didn't reply. We walked the rest of the way in silence.

Along an empty corridor James suddenly halted. "Stand here." He told me and so I stood with my back up against an old tapestry hanging from the wall. The tapestry was one of my favourites in the castle. It was of a wizard called 'Barnabas the Barmy' and showed him trying to teach trolls ballet, however, this tapestry was seldom seen as it was in a corridor which was rarely used.

Just as I was about to ask James what we were doing here he began to walk off. "Where are you going?" I began, confusion lacing my voice, when he suddenly stopped and turned back towards me. He walked towards me, stopped when he passed me, then turned and walked back past the tapestry. He did this another two times, my eyes following him the whole time, when he stopped and stared expectantly at the wall opposite the tapestry.

"Okay, I knew Al said you were crazy, but I didn't actually think…" But I didn't get to finish my sentence because something quite unexpected happened. The wall almost came alive as dark lines swirled around creating an archway. Stone surrounded the new arch and the stone within the arch became a rich looking wood. Soon the wall had a brand new door and my mouth was hanging wide open.

"Is this… Is this the Come and Go Room?" I asked stepping away from the wall.

James looked back at me smugly. "Well, I know it as the Room of Requirement, but yes."

I had read about the Come and Go Room – or as James said it was called: The Room of Requirement – in several books about the old castle, but I had either assumed it had been a myth or it had been long since lost.

When I told James this, a grin formed on his face. "Nah, my dad told me about it in my first year. He and a bunch of his friends used it during the second war." He hesitated slightly before leaning forward and taking my hand. "Come on, I'll show you."

At first I felt awkward about James holding my hand, but the awkwardness was lost when he pushed open the big door and dragged me into the room.

I had never seen the room before and so I had no idea what it looked like at any other time, but right now it was fit for a party. The walls were decorated with banners, although not the muggle kind – these banners were made with red fabric and had gold writing laced into it with 'Happy Birthday Al!'

Pushed up to the left side of the room there were tables stacked high with various foods including a huge birthday cake. Crystal chandeliers hung from the high ceiling. The far wall had no banners pinned up but was covered with full-length mirrors and in them I could see my expression: shocked. It was beautiful in here but I hadn't expected James to of set up on his own and was a little hurt that he had asked me for my help and then went and did it on his own anyway.

When I turned to look around at James he was staring at me expectantly. "So, what do you think?"

"I think that you don't need my help."

"Hmm?"

I gestured around the room. "Looks like you've set up fine to me."

Realisation flashed across his face. "Well yeah, but this is what the Room of Requirements made out of _my _imagination. I need your help to make it more… Al. I don't think he'll appreciate the Gryffindor colours."

When realisation flashed across _my _face I felt a bit stupid. I'd kind of assumed that James had used the colours to annoy Al rather than because this is what he imagined a good party to look like.

"Okay, so what do you think?" James said again when I didn't say anything.

"Well, I think you're right about the colour thing; the red and gold have to go."

"Right." James nodded.

"But don't have them green either. Have loads of colours, make it bright and happy!"

"Right."

"And as for the cake, don't have it so perfect." I looked over at the cake, which was a three layered, red iced cake and had a tiny miniature owl flying around it in circles.

"Right."

"Is this what you picture a perfect birthday cake is like, then?"

"Well, yeah. Birthday's have got to be perfect." His response surprised me a bit. I had never thought of James as a perfectionist sort of guy but now that I thought of it Al always did seem like the scruffier of the two.

"See, I'm the opposite. I don't care if a birthday isn't perfect, as long as it's spent with people you care about. And they get you great presents." I added on with a smile. Apparently the joke was lost on him and I had to quickly tell him I was joking about the last part when he started to scowl at me. I finally felt like he was warming up to me for some reason and I did _not _want him to go back to thinking I was a heartless, evil Slytherin.

We spent the next fifteen minutes in the Come and Go Room. I was telling James all the things I thought that Al would like and he nodded at everything I said.

"That's it, I think."

"Alright, why don't we go outside and then come back in, and hopefully the room will look better."

I nodded and we both left the room. I was reluctant to leave the Come and Go Room at first, afraid that I would never see it again, but the fact that James knew how to get in reassured me.

Once again James walked back and forth in front of the wall while I stood in front of the tapestry, and once again the door spiraled onto the wall. This time walking into the room was just as exciting as the first and the prospect of my input helping create the room made me anxious to see it.

This time when James held the door open for me I walked straight in and a smile grew instantly on my face. The layout of the room was effectively the same but the colours were much brighter and in greater variety. The whole room looked lighter and more spacious now that the huge food tables were replaced with smaller ones with more sweet foods.

"This looks great. Al will love it." I was probably grinning my head off and I looked back to James.

James was looking at me intently, a goofy smile on his face. I don't know why but I'm pretty sure I blushed slightly – probably because I didn't like the attention. James blinked a couple of times before his smile disappeared, saying: "He better; I worked hard on this!"

"You literally had to _think _of a room and then the room created it for you. That doesn't sound exactly tiring, James."

"Hey, I used important brain power to come up with this room and-"

"And we all know your brain power is in short supply." I joked. James laughed and went to go shove my lightly but seemed to think better of this, his hand hovering over my shoulder for a moment before falling lamely back to his side.

I glanced around the room again, excitement settling into the pit of my stomach as I thought of how much Al would love this – assuming he didn't mind that we ignored his protest of having a party in the first place. However, my smile wavered when I saw that the cake was exactly the same, right down to the tiny owl flying around it.

James must of noticed my smile drop because he asked me what was wrong before I could even open my mouth to point out the cake.

"The cake is just as perfect as I last saw it." I took a step towards the cake, James walking quickly behind me.

James swore under his breath. "I'm sorry, I just can't really imagine a different cake. It's like, I _know _what a messy, homemade cake looks like, trust me, Lily and my mum have made more than a few disastrous cakes before, but I just _can't _imagine one."

We both fell into silence. I was thinking through ideas of what we can do and I could only imagine he was doing the same thing because a moment later his eyes lit up and he grabbed my shoulders and lightly shook me. I made a quiet sound in the back of my throat from surprise but James was already speaking.

"Bridgette, why don't _we _make the cake?" He looked so proud of himself and I couldn't help but notice how his goofy smile made me feel warm inside. When I realised what I had just thought I tried to brush it off by answering James, although I'm pretty sure my voice was substantially shakier.

"What, now?" I scrunched up my face in confusion, hoping that this would somewhat cover up the blush that was flourishing on my face.

His proud smile wavered a bit. "Well, yeah. Why not?"

"Do I have to remind you once again that we're on _prefect duty tonight_? Don't you think we're already abused McGonagall's trust enough tonight?" As much as I secretly _wanted _to spend more time with James having fun I was beginning to fell bad for ignoring my duty as a prefect. I know it makes me sound like a goodie-two-shoes but the teachers had trusted me with a job and _hated _letting people down.

"Well, I can't do it tomorrow. I've got detention with Filch." _Of course you do. _"And we only have until tomorrow until we do it."

"Well how about _I _make it tomorrow." I suggested lamely.

"No!" Panic flashed across his face but disappeared as fast as it came. "I want to help." Silence fell upon us again before James eyes lit up once again, making my heart skip a beat, _again. _"Why don't we make it _after _prefect patrols? That way we won't miss prefect patrols for you."

Prefect patrols finished pretty late, and baking a cake afterwards would bring the night to a much later end. I'm one of those people who needs a stupid amount of sleep to function (despite always being determined to be a morning person) and logically I should have said no. I thought I _was _going to say no, but for some reason I found the word "Sure" fly out of my mouth.

James' smile brightened even more (I hadn't thought it would have been possible) and we left the room, talking about the other part plans as we went. What was going to happen was this: at six o'clock the party was to start. Because it was a Friday the curfew would be later, and so we would have a good three hours before we would have to start leaving. I would take Al to the common room while James escorted the guests to the Come and Go Room before I took Al up there. Only family and friends had been invited. Hopefully.

When it seemed like there was nothing more to talk about concerning the party James started to ask me about my life as a 'part-time-muggle'.

"Well, what do you wanna know?" I asked back.

"Tell me about what sort of things you do in your muggle summers."

Despite the rather odd question from the boy who had hated me for the past six years I found myself telling him everything as if he had been my friend for years.

"Well, my summer's are pretty uneventful. Occasionally some of my muggle friends will take me out, but mostly I play video games against my gaming buddies or hang with my little sister."

"You have a little sister?"

"Yeah, her names Carmen. She's just started her first year in a muggle secondary school."

"What're your parents like?"

At the mention of my parents I froze up slightly. I had momentarily forgotten about them, but the thought of them also brought the thought of them arguing. As much as I felt like I could tell James anything at the moment I didn't really want to tell him about them.

"Eh, they're like normal parents, I guess."

"How did they take it when they found out you were a witch?"

I chuckled at the memory of when my letter came. "My mother didn't believe it at first, but when she realised it was real she kind of didn't know what to do. My dad was ecstatic. '_Dis is __wunderbar, Bridgette!'_" I said in my best impression of my dad. It seemed to amuse James because he chuckled lightly too. "You're dads German?" "Well, yeah. His german accent probably isn't as strong anymore, but yes, he is German." Conversation like this flowed for a bit longer until James pointed out that prefect duties were over. I hadn't realised how quickly that time had flown by, but when I looked down at my watch he was right. "You wanna go make that cake now?" Despite myself I grinned until my cheeks hurt. "Okay!" But then my face fell into a serious expression and I stared at him until he looked mildly concerned. "But if you ruin this cake, I _will _kill you." I meant it as a joke and luckily he took it as such. "Oh, right! I'm sorry, I almost forgot that you were still a Slytherin!" He said while smiling. If he hadn't of turned away and started walking to the kitchen he would of seen the small smile that appeared on my face. Not only was it the first time he had actually gotten one of my jokes without me indicating that I was, in fact, joking, it was also the first time that he had commented on my house in a joking way and not to be mean. Dumbfounded, I stood still while he carried on walking down the corridor. I could vaguely tell he was speaking, although what about I had no idea. He must of asked me a question though because he paused for a minute before he realised I wasn't walking with him. He turned back to me and smiled. "You coming?" "Erm, yeah. Sorry." I mumbled, running after him. We walked in silence for the first time that evening all the way to the kitchens. Al and I had been to the kitchens many times before but I had only ever been down here this late. When James tickled the fruit and the door opened I was surprised at how little activity was in the usual busy kitchen. While it wasn't completely empty – a few house elves were still wondering around the place – I had never seen the kitchen so bare and without all the elves running about the place looked twice as big. A spritely elf with a bright green Christmas jumper on wandered up to us. "Can I help you, sir and madam?" The elf squeaked. "No thanks, we're just here to bake a cake." James replied with a polite smile on his face. "Oh, Tibby likes baking too, sir! If you need anything just let Tibby know." I could only assumed that Tibby was the elf we were talking to, and I gave a quick thank you before following James over to one of the counters. As James reached for his wand I looked at him sternly and shook my head. His hand wavered over his wand for a second before he let his it rest on the counter instead. "If we're gonna bake this cake, we're gonna do it without magic." "Why?" He asked, a questioning look appearing on his face. "Because that's what makes it fun!" I smiled and, surprisingly, he smiled too. "Okay then. What do we need?" "You think I know? It was your idea to bake the cake in the first place!" "Okay, I think we need flour." "You think? Why don't we just ask Tibby?" "No!" James quickly interrupted. "How are we meant to cope with life as young adults if we cant even make a cake on our own!" "Okay, here's the plan. Go around and grab everything that might look like it goes in a cake and we'll improvise from there." Two minutes later we were back at the counter with various different items. In front of us sat a bowl, a bag of flour, sugar, eggs and some butter. "Right, now what?" James asked, laughing as he spoke. "Erm, pour some flour into the bowl until it looks like the right amount." "How do I know when it's the right amount?" "I don't know, guess?" James reached for the bag and I turned to the butter, getting ready to cut it up into smaller parts with the knife that also lay on the table. James tapped me on the shoulder and I turned to look at him only to be met with a cloud of flour that had been flicked in my face. When the flour cloud drifted to the floor and I could see again, my flour covered face formed a mock offended expression but I was fighting back giggles. So was James. I stood still for a moment, my hands frozen my by head in surrender and my mouth wide open. "You wanna play like that then, do you Potter?" "If you think you could take it." James replied, raising his eyebrows smugly. Before he could have time to react I reached for an egg, got up on my tip toes and broke the egg over his head. Yoke was dripping down his shocked face and I couldn't help but laugh. Soon James and I were both in a fit of giggles and a full on food fight began. I grabbed a slab of butter and smothered it on his face while he got the bad of sugar and poured it over me, completely emptying the bag. Other foods found their ways out of the cupboards and onto our opponents faces and pretty soon our uniforms were stained with various different foods. … "Okay, would you rather eat a pizza flavoured toenail or a toenail flavoured pizza?" Peace had been made from the food fight and the cake had, somehow, been made and placed in the oven. We were now sitting on the counters waiting for the cake to finish baking and I was picking out bits of flour from my hair while we talked. "Erm, who's toe nail is it?" James asked, his head resting against the wall as he stared at me with a lopsided grin. I pondered this for a moment, placing my head on the wall next to his. I yawned for a moment; the fact that it was now past midnight finally taking hold of my mind. "Erm, Filches'." I decided and James' face scrunched up in disgust. "I'm gonna go with a toe nail flavoured pizza." "Ew, why? It's gonna taste like Filches toe nails!" "Yeah, but at least I don't actually have to eat his toe nail." "But it's gonna be a _whole _pizza. Why not just take a tiny little toe nail. You could just shut your eyes and pretend like it's just a little bit of pizza…" I trailed off when I realised he has started to laugh lightly to himself. "What?" "Where did you even think of this?" "Well what do _you _think about then?" "My future, maybe? NEWTS?" I scrunched my face up. "Why would you want to think about _that_? The future's boring; it's full of when's and who's and how's." I looked at him, waiting for his reply, but he was just staring at me, a small smirk plastered on his face. I was about to ask him what the matter was when there was a small _ding _from the direction of the oven. "Cake's ready!" I said a little too quickly and James looked a little startled at my sudden liveliness. I got the cake out using a simple levitation spell and I began to swiftly make the icing. I suddenly felt rather awkward with James now, and my stomach felt like it was about to flip over. When I glanced back at James, he was still sitting on the counter looking at me. I sucked in a deep breath before cheerfully saying: "You gonna help, or not?" That got him moving, and soon the conversation – luckily – fell back into easy banter. My stomach was still churning, but I managed to keep my voice from squeaking in anticipation. Soon the cake was finished. It was a complete mess; the cake itself was lopsided and the icing had run over the edges of the cake, dripping down the sides like molten lava. "Well, it doesn't look _too _bad." I said, and looked over at James who was peering over my shoulder. His face was one of pain. "Come on, it can't bother you _that _much that it's not perfect!" I said. His eyes darted to me, and he put on a fake smile. "What? What? It _is _perfect, totally." His voice trailed off and his voice sounded very strained. "You're right not to complain. I haven't stayed up till," I looked down at my watch, and my eyes widened at the time. "Merlin, it's two in the morning!" "Really?" James sounded just as surprised as I felt. "We should propably head back to our common rooms." "Yup. I guess so." Tibby took the cake from us, tucked it away in on of the hundreds of cupboards in the kitchen, and promised us that it would be waiting in the room of requirments for us tomorrow evening. Saying our thanks, James and I left the kitchen. The castle looked eerily dark. I was used to wandering around the dimly lit corridors on prefect patrols, but _sneaking_ around in the middle of the night put me on edge. Luckily, the dungeons weren't that far away from the kitchens. They were, however, in the opposite direction to James' common room, and I felt uneasy about leaving him. He knew his way around the castle surprisingly well, and I was pretty sure he wasn't new to sneaking around at night. I glanced over at James, who was putting a bit of parchment into his back pocket. "It's okay, Filch is on the other side of the castle." I was about to ask him how he knew, but before I could he continued. "If you ran all the way you wont get caught." I looked at him doubtfully. "I promise." He said, and for some reason I believed him. I nodded, turning my back on him, and started to jog down the corridor. When I was at the end, I turned back around, but James was already gone. I sucked in a breath, nodded again, and then ran all the way to the common room. **First of all, I am very sorry for this slow, slow, ****_slow, _****update. In my defence, GSCE's are ****_hard. _****I think a bit of my hatred for the idea of the future seeped into the story a bit there. Sorry about that. ** **I have been drowning in homework and essays and revision, and I have only been able to complete this 5000 word chapter in tiny 100-words at a time chunks. Sorry about that too.**

**Thank you for the reviews! In ****response to ****afeleon276****'s question about what everyone's patronus would be, I'm not 100% sure yet. I've decided that Bree would be a fox, Al an owl, Alec a meerkat, and James – maybe – a stag? I know that it was both James I's one, and Harry's too, but I think that James would want to be like them so much that he would have the same patronus. In terms of anamgi, I have ****_no _****idea! Maybe the same animals? I'll probably just cross that bridge when I get there! Sorry about that as well.**

**Hope y'all enjoyed it!**

**M-F-U x**


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